Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross

(from Songs of Faith and Praise)

Fanny J. Crosby, 1820 - 1915, wrote more than 8,500 hymns during her time on this earth. She became blind just a few weeks after birth, and near the end of her life she was asked if she could go back to a younger time and have one wish granted, what would it be. Knowing that the questioner was expecting her to ask for sight, she replied that she would wish to remain blind for the rest of her time on earth. Astounded at such an answer, the questioner asked how she could possibly want such a thing. She replied that she wanted the first face she ever saw to be that of her Savior in Heaven.

As one might guess from the number of hymns she wrote, she was influential and well known, not only in Christian circles, but outside of Christian influences as well. She preferred to be known as a missionary among the poor in the inner city (New York.) While she had a fascinating life, this glimpse is only offered to provide us with some insight into the person who wrote the hymn that is the subject of this article. Yet, one other interesting fact - She wrote under as many as 200 pseudonyms because publishers were hesitant to have so many hymns by one person in their hymnals.

Where else than “near the cross” would a sincere Christian desire to be? For obvious reasons, the cross has come to be the ultimate physical symbol of Christianity in the world. The cross was the ultimate destination of the Son of God from the time He entered this world until His physical life ended as He hung upon it. The cross is the ultimate physical object that provided the means of the salvation of our souls.

In and of itself the cross is a horrible object, worthy of disgust to the point of being nauseating. In the context of Christianity, no however, it becomes a beloved symbol that reminds us of the love that God and His Son have for us that the Son of God would willingly accept to die upon it to save us from our sins. Crosby’s words, “There a precious fountain, free to all a healing stream flows from Calvary’s mountain,” echo those of William Cowper, “there is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins. And sinners plunged beneath the flood lose all their guilty stains.” The fountain is precious because it is filled with Immanuel’s blood. It is a healing stream because those who are plunged beneath it have their guilt removed, Acts 22:16.

Some don’t like the references to blood. They find it “distasteful.” I understand how it can be revolting to some, because what happened to Christ on (and prior to) that cross was revolting. But if our preference is to turn our heads away, to try and ignore it, to avoid thinking about it, we need to reorient our thinking. It is a central tenet of Christianity that Jesus Christ is our Savior because He carried the guilt of our sins on that cross. It is our sins that caused the “gore” of the cross and He was willing to take that on because of His love for us. If you find yourself in the camp of those who find mention of blood off-putting, you would do well to spend time dwelling on the words of these two songs, and others like them.

It is the second verse that tears at my emotions. “Near the cross a trembling soul, love and mercy found me. There the bright and morning star sheds its beams around me.”

Two images come to my mind. One is a TV commercial for rescuing pets that features pictures of dogs in separate holding cells. Many of the dogs are literally vibrating from, what? Fear? Lost and deserted? Uncertainty? They are trembling. Without God, without Jesus, I have a lot to fear. I have a reason to feel lost and deserted. My life is defined by uncertainty. I am a trembling soul. The picture of the dogs in their cells, is a picture of me without God.

The other image comes from Isaiah 6:1-8. Here my vibrating, “trembling soul” appears in the person of Isaiah who finds himself in the throne room of God, almighty. Put yourself in Isaiah’s place. Close your eyes and shut out distractions and imagine yourself as a trembling soul in God’s throne room. The words of Isaiah, “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. The train of His robe filled the temple.” He describes the angels around the throne, and one shouted to another, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” And notice, “the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke.” And you are there, trembling with fear, vibrating like a dog in a holding cell. What would you do? What would you say?

Isaiah said, “Woe is me, for I am undone (out of place, and likely to be killed), for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah recognizes that a sinner such as himself has no business standing before God, much less in the throne room of God’s temple and that he surely will be discovered and eliminated. Isaiah is me in this case. He is you. And he is correct in his thinking. That is exactly how a king would deal with an uninvited alien in his throne room.

But an amazing thing happened. Instead of receiving the sentence and punishment of death that he rightly deserved, one of the angels flew to Isaiah and touched Isaiah’s lips with a live coal and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips, Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged.” Fanny Crosby expresses what happened in this way, “Love and mercy found me.” In Isaiah’s case it was being touched on the mouth by a live coal. In our case it was the death of Christ on the cross, and as with Isaiah, our iniquity is taken away and our sin purged.

We were due to be executed. We were trembling without hope, but love and mercy found us in the person of Christ shedding His blood on the cross. Sinners plunged beneath that fountain lose all their guilty stains. Stating that another way, “There the bright and morning star sheds its beams around me.”

There is not much better for the Christian than to have a mind centered on the cross of Christ. As verse three says, “Near the cross! O Lamb of God, bring its scenes before me. Help me walk from day to day, with its shadow o,er me.” I’m certain the humility I would feel with the shadow of the cross constantly covering me, with scenes of the crucifixion living in my mind would help me stay where I need to be in my spiritual life. That blood would be something to revere, not something to despise.

Crosby ends with a fourth verse not pictured above. “Near the cross, I’ll watch and wait. Hoping, trusting, ever, Till I reach that golden strand, just beyond the river.” Between every verse, and once more at the conclusion of the fourth verse is the refrain, “In the cross, in the cross, Be my glory ever; Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.”

This echoes the words of Paul in Gal. 6:14, “God forbid that I should boast (glory) except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” It reminds me of the words of Paul in Gal. 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

I don’t have a favorite hymn. Favorite implies one (yes, one) above all others. There are just too many hymns that reach out to me and have meaning almost beyond my ability to express. I can’t pick one above all others. But “Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross” is way up there among those that appeal to me at the highest level. It has so much good to say to us to pull us in the direction we need to go. If we meditate on all that is contained in the few words of this song, I think it will help us (as we are Trying to) Walk from day to day with the shadow of God’s love and law o’er us.