Dear Friends,
The Old Rugged Cross (1912)
Words and music by George Bennard (1873 — 1958)
Arranged and performed by Ishmael Wallace
“On a hill far away”, not a mountain, not a sharp peak, but a gentle, rounded swelling in the earth, is something… not new, not attractive. It is durable; one could say “it gets the job done”.
It represents suffering and shame; it is our contact with suffering and shame, our willing contact. It is only in this contact that suffering and shame may be cut off at the root.
A child cannot face his suffering, so he transposes it into something which can be faced, perhaps a chronic illness.
Our modern world is this chronic illness: we cannot bear to look at our suffering, so we look instead at the latest thing, the latest threat from which the Experts will protect us. A nameless horror breathing on our neck, we look at Emmanuel Goldstein.
To turn and face this horror is the Cross. It is here that our suffering has an end.
Thank you so much.
With every good wish,
Ishmael
1. On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
(Refrain:)
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.
2. O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left his glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.
3. In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For 'twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.
4. To that old rugged cross I will ever be true,
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then he'll call me some day to my home far away,
Where his glory forever I'll share.
Christ on the Cross Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664)