'Take up your cross!' the Saviour said,
'if you would my disciple be;
deny yourself, whate'er the cost
and humbly follow after me.'
Take up your cross – let not its weight
fill your weak spirit with alarm.
His strength shall bear your spirit up,
and brace your heart, and nerve your arm.
Take up your cross, heed not the shame,
nor in your arrogance rebel:
your Lord for you the cross endured
to save your soul from death and hell.
Take up your cross, then, in His strength,
freed from all terror of the grave;
and carry on his work on earth,
a lost and wounded world to save.
Take up your cross, to follow Christ,
and do not seek to lay it down;
for only if you bear the cross
may you then share the victor's crown.
Take up your cross, whate'er it be
to bear it to its God-known end.
And to our God, the One-in-three,
may sacrificial praise ascend.