Beneath the cross of Jesus

Beneath the cross of Jesus. Elizabeth Cecilia Douglas Clephane* (1830-1869). First published anonymously in The Family Treasury, a Scottish religious magazine, in 1872. It appeared after Clephane’s death, with other hymns by her, presumably sent to the magazine by a relative or friend. It appeared under the heading ‘Breathings on the Border’ (referring to the fact that Clephane had lived at Melrose, Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Border country). An editorial note said that these lines ‘express the experiences, the hopes and the longings of a young Christian lately released.’ The hymn’s power comes from the way in which the cross is seen as itself — the cross of Jesus, on which he was...