Paul wrote in Galatians 6:14, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” We are carefully self-conscious in making sure that we don’t glory in other things than the cross (the negative side of Paul’s admonition). But are we equally conscious to make sure that we do actually and whole heartedly glory in the cross (the positive side)? The cross signifies something incredibly glorious to believers, as it points us to the enormity of God’s love for us in giving His Son to die on “that old rugged cross” as the atoning sacrifice for our salvation. That’s the sentiment we feel, as in this beautiful quote from Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661), letter 62. “Welcome, welcome, welcome, sweet, sweet cross of Christ; welcome fair, fair, lovely, royal King with Thine own cross. Let us all three go to heaven together.” (Rutherford was a Scottish Presbyterian pastor and theologian, and one of the Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly.)
As a gruesome instrument used to execute the worst of criminals, the cross is what God used to accomplish the magnificent redemption of His elect. When Jesus took our sins upon Himself, “He who knew no sin became sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21), enduring that curse (Galatians 3:13) as He virtually became the worst of all criminals, with all of the sin of all of the elect of all ages placed on Him (Isaiah 53:6), though not becoming thereby a sinner Himself. Though the cross is a terrible thing, for believers, Christ’s cross is a marvelous thing. It’s in that cross that we glory.
And so for Christians who understand what the Bible teaches about Jesus’ substitutionary death on Calvary’s cross. This is not a symbol of sad defeat, but of joyous victory. When Jesus spoke from the cross that powerful Greek word, “tetelestai” (“It is finished!”), it was not a mournful whimper from one whose work had come to an end in failure, but rather a shout of victory from one whose work had come to successful completion. It wasn’t a statement from Jesus that He was so exhausted that He could not carry on any further. It was not His endurance that was at its end, but rather His mission that had been accomplished. As we sing in Elvina Hall’s 1885 hymn, “Jesus Paid It All.” There was and is nothing left for us to pay. Our full atonement has been completed.
Any of us who have grown up singing hymns in church will be able to think almost instantly of several hymns about the cross. We recall “Beneath the Cross of Jesus.” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “The Old Rugged Cross,” “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,” and of course “In the Cross of Christ I Glory.” What a joy to be able to sing for joy about what that cross has accomplished for us.
One of the greatest hymns about the cross is “Lift High the Cross.” It was written in 1887 by George William Kitchin (1827-1912). He was the son of Isaac Kitchin, curate of St. Mary’s Naughton, Suffolk and later rector of St. Stephen’s, Ipswich. He was educated at King’s College School and King’s College, London, then at Christ Church, Oxford, where in 1850 he received degrees in classic and mathematics before graduating with an M.A. in 1852. Two years later he was an examiner in mathematics at Christ Church. What followed was quite a varied career of service to the church.
He soon left Oxford to become Headmaster of Twyford Preparatory School in Hampshire, but returned to a residence at Oxford as Censor in 1861. He was also Select Preacher at Oxford for 1863 to 1864 and Whitehall Preacher from 1866 to 1867. He took a break from Oxford life to live in the Lake District from 1869 to 1871. While there he undertook assignments for the Clarendon Press. He was appointed as Chaplain to the Bishop of Chester from 1871 to 1872, was tutor of the Crown Prince of Denmark (who later became Frederick VIII of Denmark), and was lecturer and tutor in history at Christ Church from 1870 to 1883. He was also Commissary to the Bishop of Gibralter from 1874 to 1904, was an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, London, and an honorary student of Christ Church. In theology he was known as a moderate liberal, which will become evident in one expression in the final stanza this hymn.
In 1879, Kitchin was a member of a committee formed to create a women’s college at Oxford “in which no distinction will be made between students on the ground of their belonging to different religious denominations.” This resulted in the founding of what later became known as Somerville College. In 1883, Kitchin was appointed as Dean of Winchester and in 1894 as Dean of Durham. While at Winchester, Kitchin was responsible for refurbishments within the Cathedral, most notably the restoration of the mediaeval reredos behind the High Altar. Kitchin personally took over and master-minded the entire project, essentially as his own architect, commissioning the many new statues needed to populate the restored screen. When completed, this was acclaimed as one of the Church of England’s major artistic ecclesiastical restorations of the 19th century.
On September 8, 1863, at Westminster Abbey, Kitchin married Alice Maud Taylor, second daughter of Bridges Taylor, the British consul in Denmark. Their daughter Alexandra, known as “Xie,” born in 1864, became Lewis Carroll’s favorite photographic subject. Their son George Herbert Kitchin (1865–1951), was a prolific architect. He was also a botanist and garden architect. They had three further children, two sons, Hugh Bridges and Brook Taylor, and a second daughter, Dorothy Maud Mary.
While at Winchester, Kitchin wrote “Lift High the Cross” for a missionary festival service for the British Society for the Preservation of the Gospel. It has been suggested that the hymn was inspired by the story of Constantine the Great’s conversion to Christianity after seeing a cross with “In hoc signo vinces” on it (“In this sign conquer”). The traditional story says that Constantine had a vision in which he saw the cross with those Latin words. With that emblazoned before his troops, they gained victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 A.D. That led to Constantine recognizing Christianity officially as an acceptable (though not official) religion of the state, providing a basis for further spread of Christianity. In 1916, Michael R. Newbolt (1874-1956) revised the hymn, arranging it into twelve couplets. His version was published in the 1916 “Supplement to Hymns Ancient and Modern.” That edition also featured the tune set by Sydney Nicholson. That tune is known as CRUCIFER. This version is the well known version that has gained such prominence even across denominational lines.
“Lift High the Cross” was first published in the United States in the 1974 “Hymns for the Living Church,” edited by hymnologist Donald P. Hustad (1918-2013). He had served as organist for many of the Billy Graham crusades before becoming a professor at Louisville’s Southern Baptist Seminary. The hymn has since that time been published in a variety of other hymnals. While there have been variations in the text from the original, and some of these are found in various hymns, the lyrics have been reduced in number to just five in most hymnals. Those five are noted with an asterisk below.
The repeated refrain is a call that evangelicals can echo, though in a figurative, not literal way. The second commandment’s prohibition against making graven images should prevent us from making a man-made cross a focus of adoration, or even attention, in worship. We are uneasy when we see silver or gold crucifixes leading a processional down the center aisle of a church, with people bowing as it passes by their pews. But understood theologically, we do indeed “lift high the cross” in the attitude of our hearts. We do so every time we lift our hearts (figuratively, of course!) to the Lord in song and prayer. We do so in worship and in witness to “proclaim” His sacred Name until all the world acknowledges Him as King of kings and Lord of lords, as promised in Philippians 2:9-11. How wonderful to live in anticipation of that day, eternally set on God’s calendar. And the joy becomes even greater when we remember that we will not only see and hear this, but we will be privileged to be among those voices acclaiming Him as victorious for us.
Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim,
Till all the world adore His sacred Name.
Stanza 1 calls fellow believers to join us in our song of praise to “our King victorious.” And that means we should “follow where our Savior trod,” which will mean not just joining in the procession celebration, but also taking up our cross daily, putting self to death.
Come, brethren, follow where our Savior (originally “Captain”) trod,
Our King victorious, Christ the Son of God.
Stanza 2 describes this joyful procession of worshippers moving out, armed with the gospel in the power of the Spirit, to do battle against Satan and his demonic forces at work in the minds and hearts of those who are spiritually dead. Spiritual warfare imagery is common in Scripture.
Led on their way by this triumphant sign,
The hosts of God in conquering ranks combine.
The following stanzas are seldom sung today:
Each newborn soldier of the Crucified
Bears on the brow the seal of Him who died.
This is the sign which Satan’s legions fear
And angels veil their faces to revere.
Saved by this Cross whereon their Lord was slain,
The sons of Adam their lost home regain.
From north and south, from east and west they raise
In growing unison their songs of praise.
Stanza 3 is directed to the Lord Himself, the one who was “once lifted on the glorious tree.” Though Moses announced the curse of God on the one who hangs on a tree (Deuteronomy 21:23), that tree on which Jesus was nailed has become the symbol of victory for us. We remember, as well, what we read in John 3:14-15 about those who looked in faith upon the bronze serpent, a symbol of the fulfillment of the promise in Genesis 3:15 that the head of the seed of the serpent would be crushed under the heel of the seed of the woman. C. S. Lewis eloquently described a nail-scarred footprint on Satan’s neck!
O Lord, once lifted on the glorious tree,
As Thou hast promised, draw men (originally “the world”) unto Thee.
The following stanzas are seldom sung today:
Let every race and every language tell
Of Him who saves our souls from death and hell.
From farthest regions let their homage bring,
And on his Cross adore their Savior King.
Stanza 4 is imitative of the request Jesus taught us to offer in “The Lord’s Prayer,” that His kingdom would come and that His will would be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” When Satan and his malevolent influence has finally been removed in the new heaven and new earth, “earth’s despair” shall cease. We long for a measure of that now because of the cross, “beneath the shadow of its healing peace.”
Thy kingdom come (originally “Set up Thy throne”), that earth’s despair may cease
Beneath the shadow of its healing peace.
Stanza 5 concludes with the confident expectation and anticipation of that day in which we will rejoice as “creation’s praise rise before Thy throne.” That will only be possible because of what the cross of Christ will have victoriously accomplished, atoning for all the sin of God’s elect.
For Thy blest Cross which doth for us (originally “all”) atone,
Creation’s praises rise before Thy throne.
The five stanzas of the 1974 text are still under copyright by Hope Publishing Company. The approved alteration from “all” to “us” in the final stanza is found in the 1990 “Trinity Hymnal” and in the 2018 “Trinity Psalter Hymnal.” It was done by the Trinity Hymnal revision committee at the recommendation of its editor because of the implied universalism. Jesus’ death did not atone for all human beings. Numerous passages, especially in the Gospel of John, make it clear that Jesus’ death while certainly sufficient for all, was efficient (intended for and applied to) only the elect, thus the textual alteration from “all” to “us.” In His “High Priestly Prayer” recorded in John 17, Jesus prayed “not for the world, but for all that You have given me” (v. 9).
The hymn tune CRUCIFER was written for this text by Sydney Hugo Nicholson (1875-1947). Born at St. Marylebone, London, he was an organist and church music educator who greatly influenced English hymnody. Educated at Oxford’s New College, the Royal College of Music in London, and in Frankfurt, Germany, he became organist at several famous cathedrals, including Westminster Abbey (1919-1928). He became so alarmed at the state of choral music in England’s parish churches, that he founded and administered the School of English Church Music at Chislehurst in 1927. This important institution, with branches throughout the English-speaking world, was renamed the Royal School of Church Music in 1945. Located in Canterbury after World War II, its headquarters were moved to Addington Palace, Croydon, in 1954. In 1928 he left the prestigious position at Westminster Abbey and took lesser posts to be able to devote his time and energy to the whole Church of England, and by extension to the entire Anglican Communion. Nicholson was music adviser for the 1916 “Supplement of Hymns Ancient and Modern” and prepared the way for its 1950 edition. He wrote “Church Music: a Practical Handbook” (1920) and “Quires and Places Where They Sing” (1932) and composed operettas, anthems, and hymn tunes. In 1938 he was knighted for his contributions to church music.
Here is a link to the hymn as sung by the men’s chorus at The Master’s Seminary in California, a ministry of John MacArthur at Grace Community Church.