Jesus, I my cross have taken (Alternate Tune)

brother Istifanus Ariko, salvation: our defining moment! HALLELUJAH! What a thought! Jesus, full salvation brought: V I C T O R Y! Let us sing it here below in the face of every foe: V I C T O R Y! We will sing it on that shore wen this fleeting life is o’er: V I C T O R Y !

Madam Ana Lara, much thanks!

This hymn: Jesus, I my cross have taken is another i’ve revised, personal experience and one of my favs.

Happily and humbly, I submit in Jesus’s name; bc, i’m saved and sanctified the Bible way ~

Born June 1, 1793, at Kelso Scotland, Henry Francis Lyte knew what poverty was yet he struggled hard at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland ( where J. N. D. later attended) he was awarded the prize for poetry three times. This gave him some much needed money. He intended to be a physician but gave it up to become a minister of the Church of England, all while he was not yet saved!

In 1818 , three years after he entered the ministry a fellow clergyman was agonizing on his death bed because he was unpardoned and unprepared to meet the Lord. Henry then realized that he wasn’t saved either! They read together in Paul’s Epistles and the eyes of their hearts were enlightened to see that salvation comes through the work of Christ. When his friend died, Lyte said, “he died happy under the belief that, though he erred, there was One whose death and sufferings would atone for all his delinquencies, and He accepted for all that he had incurred. ”

Henry worked in Brixham, England, a seafaring town. He had a large Sunday school ministry with a few hundred students and trained about 70 teachers for the task.

One writer says that his life “was filled with disappointments and afflictions”. The last hymn he wrote “Abide with Me” was written under deplorable circumstances. He had been ordered by the doctor to leave for the south because of his poor health. In his last sermon he spoke to his beloved congregation and said, “I stand before you seasonably today as alive from the dead, if I may impress it upon you to prepare for that solemn hour which must come to all, by a timely acquaintance with, appreciation of, and a dependence on the death of Christ. ” He then went to his room conscious he was close to dying. As evening approached, he came out of his room and gave the hymn ‘Abide with Me’ to one of his close relatives with a tune to sing it with. The tune was lost but the words remain.

One of the stanzas tell us his own experience at the moment.
“Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see;
Oh Thou, Who changest not, abide with me! ”

Soon after in that same year on November 20, 1847 he died in Nice, France at the age of 54 on his way to Rome.

He experienced so happily what he penned in this last line:

“Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;

In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

A great starting point of my journey with Christ, is when I agree to take my cross and forsake all to follow him!