er! What shall our meeting be,
When our hearts shall sing, and our eyes shall see!

The Emblem That Survives

In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.

When the woes of life o'ertake me,
Hopes deceive, and fears annoy,
Never shall the cross forsake me;
Lo! it glows with peace and joy.

When the sun of bliss is beaming
Light and love upon my way,
From the cross the radiance streaming
Adds new luster to the day.

Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure,
By the cross are sanctified;
Peace is there that knows no measure,
Joys that through all time abide.

John Bowring, 1825.

A UNITARIAN WHO GLORIED IN THE CROSS

Among the great hymns of the cross, Sir John Bowring's classic, "In the
cross of Christ I glory," occupies a foremost place. This is all the more
remarkable when we are reminded that Bowring was known as a Unitarian, a
communion which not only denies the deity of Christ, but ignores the true
significance of the cross. And yet he has given us a hymn that every
evangelical Christian rejoices to sing, for it is a hymn that magnifies
the cross and makes it the very center of the Christian religion.

In justice to Bowring it ought to be stated that he himself was "a
devoted and evangelical believer," and that his connection with the
Unitarian Church was merely accidental and nominal. When he died, in
1872, the opening line of his famous hymn was inscribed in bold letters
upon his tombstone:

In the Cross of Christ I Glory

Knowing these things, every true Christian will cherish an inner
conviction that the man who wrote so beautiful a tribute to Christ and
the cross did not really die but only fell asleep, trusting in the
atoning death of a Saviour who is God.

Bowring was a learned man, especially famed as a linguist. He is said to
have been able to speak twenty-two languages fluently, and was able to
converse in at least one hundred different tongues. He found special
delight in translating poems from other languages. His published works
contain translations from Bohemian, Slavonic, Russian, Servian, Polish,
Slovakian, Illyrian, Teutonic, Esthonian, Dutch, Frisian, Lettish,
Finnish, Hungarian, Biscayan, French, Provencal, Gascon, I