“The
shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land.”
Isaiah 32:2
As
his story goes, a few years ago a very good friend of mine and his daughter
were driving along the south coast of Spain. As they travelled, he was
teaching/reminding her of some of the songs in the Believer’s Hymn Book. As
they approached Gibraltar, what should come to his mind but the key line of
this great piece, “a mighty rock within a weary land”. Gibraltar certainly is a
“mighty rock”, but the thought of THE “Mighty Rock”, Jesus, caused him to
worship all over again.
Beneath the cross of Jesus, I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat, and the burden of the day.
The shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noontide heat, and the burden of the day.
O safe and happy shelter, O refuge tried
and sweet,
O trysting place where Heaven’s love and Heaven’s justice meet!
As to the holy patriarch that wondrous dream was given,
So seems my Savior’s cross to me, a ladder up to heaven.
O trysting place where Heaven’s love and Heaven’s justice meet!
As to the holy patriarch that wondrous dream was given,
So seems my Savior’s cross to me, a ladder up to heaven.
There lies beneath its shadow but on the
further side
The darkness of an awful grave that gapes both deep and wide
And there between us stands the cross two arms outstretched to save
A watchman set to guard the way from that eternal grave.
The darkness of an awful grave that gapes both deep and wide
And there between us stands the cross two arms outstretched to save
A watchman set to guard the way from that eternal grave.
Upon that cross of Jesus mine eye at
times can see
The very dying form of One Who suffered there for me;
And from my stricken heart with tears two wonders I confess;
The wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness.
The very dying form of One Who suffered there for me;
And from my stricken heart with tears two wonders I confess;
The wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness.
I take, O cross, thy shadow for my
abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face;
I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of His face;
Content to let the world go by, to know
no gain or loss,
My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.
My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.
The writer, Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane,
third daughter of Andrew Clephane, Sheriff of Fife, was born at Edinburgh, June
18, 1830, and died at Bridgend House, near Melrose, Scotland, February 19,
1869.
The third verse may be unfamiliar to readers
of the Believer’s Hymn Book, but it takes on deep significance when we realize
that Eliza was writing this in 1868, only months before her own death. It is
strange that G.K.Chesterton should pick up on this same theme sixty years later,
of the arms of the cross “outstretched to save”. He pointed out that a circle
is very exclusive, but the shape of the cross is welcoming—its arms can extend boundlessly,
to receive anyone.
Eliza was known in Melrose for her
bright and sunny ways. But another of her hymns looks to the shepherds and
sheep on the surrounding hills and laments,
There were ninety and nine
that safely lay
In the shelter of the fold,
But one was out on the hills
away,
Far off from the gates of
gold.
That one,
it was feared, was her own brother, George (1819-1851), in Fergus, Ontario. A
later verse shows that she believed he had returned to the fold shortly before
he died.
Another resident of Melrose at that
time (1859 to approximately 1878) was Anne Ross Cousin, the author of Immanuel’s Land. They were both from the
Free Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) and must have known each other and
worked and worshiped together, where Anne’s husband William Cousin was the
pastor.
