When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
A meditation on the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.
Some Christians of Galatia, to avoid State persecution as Christians, tried to get their fellows to be circumcised so all could claim to be Jews. Isaac Watts shared St Paul’s conviction that to exchange the cross for any other badge of identity, however socially respectable, would be the saddest of bargains.
God forbid that I should boast,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Galatians 6:14
WHEN I survey the wondrous Cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
2 Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.
3 See from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet?
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
4 His dying crimson like a robe
Spreads o’er his body on the tree,
Then am I dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.
5 Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.