Staying Salty: Never Further than Thy Cross

Monday, March 21, 2022

Never Further than Thy Cross

When you were dead in your transgressions and uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Colossians 2: 13-15

Never Further than Thy Cross
Elizabeth Rundle Charles (1828 - 1896)

Never further than Thy cross,
never higher than Thy feet;
here earth's precious things seem dross;
here earth's bitter things grow sweet.

Here, O Christ, our sins we see,

learn Thy love while gazing thus;

sin, which laid the cross on Thee,

love, which bore the cross for us.

Here we learn to serve and give,

and, rejoicing, self deny;

here we gather love to live;

here we gather faith to die.

Pressing onward as we can,

still to this our hearts must tend;

where our earliest hopes began,

there our last aspirings end.

Till amid the hosts of light,

we in Thee redeemed, complete,

through Thy cross made pure and white,

cast our crowns before Thy feet.

...

Elizabeth Rundle Charles was the daughter of a member of Parliament and her husband was a lawyer. She became a renowned writer, scholar, musician, and artist in her own right. For a time she was one of the most famous women in Britain.

Coordinates are laid out in the first stanza: latitude, Jesus' cross; longitude, Jesus' feet. This is where we stay. Not that our lives are static but we "press onward as we can." We need to keep coming back to those familiar coordinates: Jesus' cross, Jesus' feet. This text reveals an intricacy of symmetry and light contrast. One scholar compared it to the sewing of a sampler--there is sort of a light cross-stitch pattern, especially in the last two lines of each stanza.

In this hymn, Mrs Charles points out that all we do is checked by what Christ does. This is where we belong, His devoted children: at Jesus' cross, at Jesus' feet.