lace, on their behalf. This was His one thought. Through this their
bondage to sin and to Satan would be broken and they would be set
free.[126] And they would be drawn, their hearts would be utterly melted
and broken by His love for them.[127] The influence would reach out
until all the race would feel its power and respond; and it would reach
into each one's life who came till the life he lived was of the
abundant, eternal sort.

The devil was a real personality to Jesus. This whole terrific struggle
ending at the cross was a direct spirit-battle with that great spirit
prince. So Jesus understood it. All the bitter enmity to Himself traces
straight back to that source. That enmity found its worst expression in
Jesus' death. The pitched spirit-battle was there. But that prince was
judged, condemned, utterly defeated and cast out in that battle, and his
hold upon men broken.[128]

And so this was the greatest wooing of all. It was greatest in its
intensity of meaning _to the Father_ looking eagerly down. It revealed
His unbending, unflinching ideals of right, and the great strength and
tenderness of His love for men. He would even give His Son. It was
greatest in its intensity of meaning _to the Son_. It meant the utmost
of suffering ever endured, the utmost of love underneath ever revealed;
and it would mean the race-wide sweep of His gracious power.

It was greatest in its intensity of meaning _to Satan_, the hater of God
and man. It told his utter defeat, and loss of power over man. So it
broke our bonds and made us free to yield to the wooing. And it was
greatest in its intensity of meaning _to us men_. For it showed to our
confused eyes the one ideal of right standing out clear and full. It
set us free from the fetters of our bondage, gave us the tremendous
incentive of love to reach up to the ideal of right, and more, immensely
more, gave us _power to reach it_.

It was the greatest wooing _in the out-reach_ of its influence, for all
men of all the earth would be touched.[129] And it was greatest _in the
in-reach_ to all the life of each one who came under its blessed
influence. The whole ministry taught this. It would mean newness of life
in body, in mind, in social nature, in spirit, and in the eternal
quality of life lived here, and to be lived without any ending.

And all the world has responded to this greatest wooing as they have
come to know of it. That three-languaged inscription on the cross was a
wo