At the cross of Jesus

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • Psalms 85:10
  • Psalms 89:14
  • Isaiah 53:4-6
  • Jeremiah 13:17
  • Jeremiah 9:1
  • Matthew 27:35
  • Matthew 27:54-56
  • Mark 15:24
  • Mark 15:39-41
  • Luke 23:33
  • Luke 23:47-49
  • Luke 24:46-47
  • John 1:17
  • John 19:18
  • John 19:25
  • John 19:35
  • Romans 12:1
  • Romans 6:18-22
  • 1 Corinthians 12:3
  • 1 Corinthians 2:2
  • Galatians 2:20
  • Ephesians 1:7
  • Ephesians 2:12-13
  • Colossians 1:14
  • 1 Timothy 1:15
  • Revelation 1:5-6
Book Number:
  • 414

At the cross of Jesus
I would take my place,
drawn by such a measure
of redeeming grace.
Fill my eyes with sorrow,
lift my eyes to see
Jesus Christ my Saviour
crucified for me.

2. At the cross of Jesus
patiently he bore
bitter shame and sorrow,
grief and anguish sore.
Through eternal ages
I shall never know
what he had to suffer,
why he loved me so.

3. At the cross of Jesus
even though I be
chief of all the sinners
there is hope for me.
Judged, condemned and guilty
I am lost indeed,
but the cross of Jesus
meets my deepest need.

4. At the cross of Jesus
pardon is complete:
love and justice mingle,
truth and mercy meet.
Though my sins condemn me
Jesus died instead:
there is full forgiveness
in the blood he shed.

5. At the cross of Jesus
liberty you gave;
so I come, dear Saviour,
glad to be your slave.
Let your love possess me,
so that all may see
what your death accomplished
on the cross for me.

© Scripture Union
John Eddison 1916 – 2011

The Son - His Suffering and Death

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Tunes

  • Evelyns
    Evelyns
    Metre:
    • 65 65 D
    Composer:
    • Monk, William Henry
  • Vespers
    Vespers
    Metre:
    • 65 65 D
    Composer:
    • Prothero, Henry Allen
  • At the cross of Jesus
    At the cross of Jesus
    Metre:
    • 65 65 D
    Composer:
    • Simpkin, Richard Benjamin

The story behind the hymn

John Eddison’s hymn, with its clear message and the same awareness of personal responsibility and release as in 412, was written at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1942. It has been published in French and Spanish versions; its first significant appearance in a British collection came with Songs of Worship in 1980, the year of the author’s retirement from his work with Scripture Union who also published the book. This remains his preferred text, as written, where 1.5 reads ‘Fill my heart …’, and 5.2 and 4, ‘you have set me free … yielding all to thee’; the changes here were adopted from Praises for the King of Kings (1994). The author’s preferred tune is PRINCETHORPE by William Pitts. In SW it is set to F W Blunt’s LYNDHURST, and to a new tune GREENHILL (in 4-line stzs) by the book’s editor Robin Sheldon. EVELYNS, chosen here, is one of the finest tunes by William H Monk, composed for At the name of Jesus (287), and published with those words in the 1875 A&M, soon after their first appearance. For the alternative VESPERS, see 703.

A look at the author

Eddison, Robert John Buchanan

b Derbyshire 1916, d Lingfield, Surrey 2011. Wellington Coll, Trinity Coll Cambridge (MA, History) and Ridley Hall Cambridge; ordained (CofE) 1939. After a curacy at Tunbridge Wells he was a Travelling Secretary for Scripture Union from 1942 80, retiring in 1981 and living in Crowborough, Sussex. Much of that time was filled with a nationwide ministry among schoolboys, both in school (where his gift for the apt illustration kept him in demand as a preacher) and in the Christian camps and holiday houseparties he helped to organise. Of nearly 30 publications on Christian faith and life, some translated into other languages, his first was Newness of Life and among the best known Step by Step and Who Died Why. In 1983 he edited and introduced A Study in Spiritual Power, an appreciation of E J H Nash, founder of the ‘Bash’ camps for boys (new edn 1992) and in 1986 he wrote The Last Lap (on ‘retirement and the latter years: a time of opportunity’). His gift for writing comic verse, sometimes gently satirical, was exercised well into old age. When he came to need more support he moved into the College of St Barnabas at Lingfield, Surrey, for Anglican clergy, where John R W Stott, a friend for more than 70 years, was later to join him. He died peacefully there on 10 May 2011.

John Eddison wrote several hymn-texts from the early 1940s onwards (well before the ‘hymn-explosion’!), soon moving from ‘thee-language’ to ‘you’. Seven were included in the supplement Songs of Worship, 1980, notably ‘At the cross of Jesus I would take my place’, and ‘Father, although I cannot see/ the future you have planned’. Both have also featured, as here, in full-scale hymn-books, the latter with at least three new tunes; his obituary in HSB (July 2011) noted that ‘both are notable for their clarity and simplicity of language, well-honed by his lifelong ministry among a much younger generation, with a total absence of conscious cleverness but with all the marks of a mind and heart steeped in the scriptures’. Nos.414, 870.