F HE GREATEST struggle ever
waged in this world is the battle
between good and evil. The great-
est victory that man can ever win is the
triumph over sin. The most important
thing for man to know is what is at stake
for him and the world in this conflict be-
tween right and wrong, and to know how
the victory over sin will be obtained.
In the battle against wrong man is
fighting against the most powerful, the
most cunning, and the most malevolent
forces this world has ever known. This is
a struggle which he cannot win alone.
Left to himself, he can but ill understand
the issues involved in the controversy.
It is a war that started before this world
was created, a struggle which will not
end until this present world has passed
away.
In this conflict every man has a part.
His allegiance is on either the one side
or the other. He is either working for the
building of a new and better world in
which sin and all its evil fruitage will
have no place, or he is aiding and
abetting those forces of evil which have
long held the world in the grip of lust,
corruption, and greed, and have flooded
the whole earth with hatred and blood,
The VICTORY
THAT SAVED THE WORLD
When Jesus uttered the
words “It is done,” and
expired on the cross, He
sounded the death knell
of the devil, and made sure
the ultimate triumph of
right over wrong.
useless imagery were it
not for that crowning
event of ancient his-
tory—thesupremesac-
rifice made by Jesus
for the sins of men.
Paul would have
died a Jewish zealot
but for the vision of
the cross which trans-
formed his life and did
so much to bring
about a change in the
entire course of hu-
man history. Peter
would have passed in-
to the insignificance of
Galillean rusticity but
for the cross on which
his Master died. Abra-
ham would have been
only another forgotten
It Was Achieved at Infinite Cost for You
bitterness and tears, disaster and woe.
That force which is doing more than
any other in this world in the battle
against evil is the church. The outstand-
ing symbol of the church is the cross.
Take away the cross and all for which it
stands, and you take away the heart of
the religion of Jesus Christ. Christ would
not have been the Saviour but for the
cross on which He died. Christianity
would not be the true religion but for
the cross which symbolizes the supreme
event in the history of mankind. The
Gospels would be meaningless but for the
climactic scenes witnessed on the hill of
Golgotha. The most solemn rites of the
church—baptism and the holy com-
munion—would be without significance
but for the death of Jesus on Calvary.
All the typical ceremonies of ancient
Judaism would be but empty form and
PAGE 4
inhabitant of ancient Canaan had not
the altars he reared envisioned the cross
upon which the Master of men was to
make the supreme sacrifice. Isaiah would
have remained in eternal obscurity had
he not foreseen Him who was wounded
for our transgressions and bruised for our
iniquities, who was brought as a lamb to
the slaughter, and who, as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so opened not His
mouth. (Isaiah 53: 5,7.) The sanctuary
of Moses in the wilderness, and the temple
of Solomon in Jerusalem, would have
meant nothing to the ancient Hebrews
but for the cross of Jesus Christ prefigured
by their elaborate ceremonies.
The cross of Christ marked a climactic
point in. the great controversy between
good and evil. It is there that the forces
of evil received their defeat and the ulti-
mate triumph of the forces of righteous-
By Edwin R. Thiele
ness was eternally assured. It was in the
streets of old Jerusalem, midst the olive
groves of ancient Gethsemane, and on the
old hill of Golgotha, where the hosts of
evil gathered their mightiest array, where
they put forth their most desperate
efforts, and where they suffered their
most complete and ignominious defeat.
It was Christ and His kingdom of right-
eousness that came out victorious from
that memorable combat. It was Satan
and his stygian hosts that there received:
wounds from which there will be no
recovery.
Since the death of Jesus on the cross
Satan knows that his doom is sealed.
(Revelation 12: 12.) Since that hour he
knows that, try as he may, there is no way
THE WATCHMAN MAGAZINE