Never Further Than Thy Cross

Above:  The Crucifixion

Image in the Public Domain

Text (published in 1867), by Elizabeth Rundle Charles (1828-1876)

Hymn Source #1 = The Methodist Hymnal (1935), the Methodist Episcopal Church; the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and the Methodist Protestant Church

Hymn Source #2 = Robert Guy McCutchan, Our Hymnody:  A Manual of The Methodist Hymnal, 2nd. ed. (1937)

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Never further than Thy cross,

Never higher than Thy feet;

Here earth’s precious things seem dross,

Here earth’s bitter things grow sweet.

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Gazing thus our sin we see,

Learn Thy love while gazing thus;

Sin, which laid the cross on Thee,

Love, which bore the cross for us.

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Here we learn to serve and give,

And, rejoicing, self deny;

Here we gather love to live,

Here we gather faith to die.

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Symbols of our liberty

And our service here unite;

Captives, by Thy cross set free,

Soldiers of Thy cross, we fight.

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Pressing onward as we can,

Still to this our hearts must tend;

Where our earliest hopes began,

There our last aspirings end;

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Till amid the hosts of light,

We in Thee redeemed, complete,

Through Thy cross made pure and white,

Cast our crowns before Thy feet.

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