Where to Stand

In 1868, Elizabeth Clephane wrote the hymn, Beneath the Cross of Jesus. It was published three years after her death. Clephane was born in Scotland. She was considered a frail girl, but was known for her philanthropic causes. Her parents died when she was young and her brother died in a fall from a horse. She died at 38, a weak, frail, short-lived life ... full of good works. What was her secret?

Elizabeth was known as "one of those cheerful people who brighten every corner." Her friends called her "Sunbeam." Because Clephane lived "beneath the cross of Jesus." In what sense? Elizabeth wrote,

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.

It's a bold statement. Bold because Scripture says "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor 1:18). She boldly declares to those who consider it "foolishness," "This is where I gladly reside." And bold because the cross is a place of suffering. You actually want to stand there?

In subsequent verses, Clephane calls the cross a "safe and happy shelter," a "trysting place where heaven's love and heaven’s justice meet." I love that phrase. She confesses that she can see Him on that cross at times. "And from my smitten heart, with tears, two wonders I confess -- the wonders of His glorious love, and my own worthlessness." That's where she longed to stand.

The last verse says,

I take, O cross, thy shadow
For my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than
The sunshine of His face;
Content to let the world go by,
To know no gain nor loss,
My sinful self my only shame,
My glory all the cross.

In that verse we find her secret to happiness in an existence that we would consider painful, even unbearable. Beneath His cross, she was looking to Jesus. Nowhere else. Like Paul with his thorn in the flesh, "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me" (2 Cor 12:9). At the cross we can find contentment beyond the world's understanding. I would gladly ("fain") take my stand there.