Hymn #26: Beneath the Cross of Jesus

Lyrics: Elizabeth C. Clephane, 1868.

Music: ST CHRISTOPHER, Frederick C. Maker.

Theme: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14.

Elizabeth Cecelia Douglas Clephane was one of three sisters living in Melrose, Scotland in the mid-1800’s. She wrote several poems, but Beneath the Cross of Jesus was written only one year before Ms. Clephane’s death in 1869 at the age of thirty-nine. It was published, posthumously, three years later.

1. Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand,
the shadow of a mighty rock
within a weary land;
a home within the wilderness,
a rest upon the way,
from the burning of the noontide heat,
and the burden of the day.

2. There lies beneath its shadow,
but on the farther side,
the darkness of an open grave
that gapes both deep and wide;
and there between us stands the cross,
two arms outstretched to save,
like a watchman to guard the way
from that eternal grave.

3. O safe and happy shelter,
O refuge tried and sweet,
O trysting place where heaven’s love
And heaven’s justice meet!
As to the holy patriarch
That wondrous dream was giv’n,
So seems my Savior’s cross to me,
A ladder up to heav’n.

4. Upon that cross of Jesus
mine eye at times can see
the very dying form of One
who suffered there for me;
and from my stricken heart with tears
two wonders I confess:
the wonders of redeeming love
and my unworthiness.

5. I take, O cross, thy shadow
for my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than
the sunshine of his face;
content to let the world go by,
to know no gain nor loss,
my sinful self my only shame,
my glory all the cross.

The reference to:
“the mighty Rock” and “a weary land” is taken from Isaiah 32:2.
“home within the wilderness” is taken from Jeremiah 9:2.
“rest upon the way” is taken from Isaiah 28:12.
“noontide heat” is taken from Isaiah 4:6.
“watchman to guard the way” is taken from Ezekiel 33:6-7.
“burden of the day” is taken from Matthew 11:30.
“a ladder up to heav’n” is taken from Genesis 28:11-12.
“my glory all the cross” is taken from Galatians 6:14.

I like this poem/hymn even better with verses two and three added. The image of the cross as a watchman between me and an open grave and as a “trysting place,” not for human lovers, but where the love and the justice of God meet—those are good. I would like to find more of Ms.Clephane’s poetry, but here’s a link to the only one of her poems I can find other than today’s hymn.

The Lost Sheep, or The Ninety and Nine

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