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One Sunday evening when I was single, I arrived for Sunday night services early. Feeling a little lonely and kind of overwhelmed with things, I opened the Baptist hymnal in front of me. I flipped the pages and found this hymn. It blessed me and made my night. I have never heard it sung, but the words are so great it is one of my favorite hymns:

Jesus, I my cross have taken

Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee.
Destitute, despised, forsaken, Thou from hence my all shall be.
Perish every fond ambition, all I’ve sought or hoped or known.
Yet how rich is my condition! God and heaven are still mine own.

Let the world despise and leave me, they have left my Savior, too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me; Thou art not, like them, untrue.
And while Thou shalt smile upon me, God of wisdom, love and might,
Foes may hate and friends disown me, show Thy face and all is bright.

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure! Come, disaster, scorn and pain!
In Thy service, pain is pleasure; with Thy favor, loss is gain.
I have called Thee, “Abba, Father”; I have set my heart on Thee:
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather, all must work for good to me.

Man may trouble and distress me, ’twill but drive me to Thy breast.
Life with trials hard may press me; heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me while Thy love is left to me;
Oh, ’twere not in joy to charm me, were that joy unmixed with Thee.

Take, my soul, thy full salvation; rise o’er sin, and fear, and care;
Joy to find in every station something still to do or bear:
Think what Spirit dwells within thee; what a Father’s smile is thine;
What a Savior died to win thee, child of heaven, shouldst thou repine?

Haste then on from grace to glory, armed by faith, and winged by prayer,
Heaven’s eternal day’s before thee, God’s own hand shall guide thee there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission, swift shall pass thy pilgrim days;
Hope soon change to glad fruition, faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

Words: Henry Francis Lyte, 1824

THANKS FOR THE HYMNS. MY FAVORITE OF ALL TIME IS "IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL". BUT WHEN IT COMES TO EASTER TIME, MY FAVORITE IS A MORE CONTEMPORARY SONG. IT TAKES ME BACK TO WHEN I WAS FIRST SAVED, AND IT'S GOOD TO REMEMBER THAT FEELING FROM TIME TO TIME. "The Cross of Christ"

On Calvary’s mountain Hope was born.
God himself the sacrifice.
He carried sin, its grief and scorn
Up on the precious cross of Christ.

I have not seen this rugged wood
to which my Savior was enticed.
But evil hearts were changed to good
Up on the precious cross of Christ.

Refrain:
Oh blessed Hope
Unbounded Grace
When all our good would not suffice.
He challenged darkness face to face
Up on the precious cross of Christ.

There is a joy that’s found within
those who are born not once, but twice.
For they have learned that life begins
Up on the precious cross if Christ.
For they have learned that life begins
Up on the precious cross if Christ.
Refrain...