talian,
Spanish, Portuguese, Catalonian and Galician sources.

Sir John was particularly fond of the study of hymns. Even at the age of
eighty years he was said to begin the day with some new song of
thanksgiving.

In addition to all his other accomplishments, Bowring had a very
distinguished career in English politics. He was twice a member of the
British parliament. Later he became consul general for the English
government at Hong Kong, China. During this period he chanced to sail
down the Chinese coast to Macao, where nearly 400 years earlier the
Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, had built an imposing cathedral. The
structure had been wrecked by a typhoon, but the tower still remained,
and surmounting it a great bronze cross, sharply outlined against the
sky. Far above the wreckage surrounding it, the cross seemed to Bowring
to be a symbol of Christ's Kingdom, glorious and eternal, living through
the centuries while other kingdoms have come and gone. So inspired was he
by the sight, the words of the hymn seemed to suggest themselves to him
at once, and in a short while a famous poem had been written.

The plan of the hymn is interesting. The first stanza declares the cross
of Christ to be the central fact in divine revelation and the one theme
in which the Christian never ceases to glory. The second stanza pictures
the cross as the Christian's refuge and comfort in time of affliction,
while the third tells how it also adds luster to the days of joy and
sunshine. The final stanza summarizes these two ideas, and the hymn
closes by telling of the eternal character of the peace and joy that flow
from the cross.

An interesting story is told of this hymn in connection with the Boxer
uprising in China. All foreigners in Peking had been besieged by the
infuriated Chinese for several weeks. When the allied troops finally
reached the city and the terrible strain was ended, the Christian
missionaries gathered in the Temple of Heaven, the remarkable pagan
shrine where the Emperor of China was accustomed to worship, and, lifting
up their voices in thanksgiving, the messengers of the cross sang:

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.

Sir John Bowring eventually became governor of Hong Kong, and wielded
great influence in the Orient. He did much to promote Christian
benevolences and other enterprises for the goo