The Old Rugged Cross Meaning, History, and Theology
"On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross"
- Written
- 1913
- Category
- Hymn
- Tune
- Standard Tune
- Rights
- Public domain
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Story
“The Old Rugged Cross” is George Bennard’s 1913 gospel hymn about Christ’s saving death, Christian discipleship, and hope beyond suffering. Bennard wrote both text and tune, developing the song through evangelistic work before its 1913 copyright and later widespread revival and hymnal use.
Overview
“The Old Rugged Cross” is an American gospel hymn centered on the paradox of the cross: an instrument of Roman execution and public disgrace becomes, for Christians, the place where the saving love of Christ is contemplated and confessed. The hymn moves from meditation on Christ’s suffering toward personal allegiance, perseverance, and hope.
Its theology is devotional rather than technical. George Bennard does not attempt to explain every theory of the atonement; instead, he invites worshipers to view the cross through the New Testament proclamation that Christ bore sin, endured shame, and accomplished redemption. The result is a song in which gratitude for salvation leads toward discipleship.
Pastorally, the hymn is especially suited to Good Friday, Passiontide, evangelistic services, funerals, and services focused on the cross or Christian perseverance. Its language is strongest when the physical cross is understood as pointing beyond itself to the crucified and risen Christ rather than being treated as a sacred object with saving power of its own.
Historical Background
George Bennard’s own accounts make “The Old Rugged Cross” unusual among popular gospel hymns because the author left a substantial description of how the song developed. In a 1930 booklet and in an account later published by George W. Sanville, Bennard said he had been studying and praying about the place of the cross in Christian redemption while conducting evangelistic meetings. The theme and melody came before the complete text, and the song developed over an extended period rather than in a single burst of composition.
The chronology spans late 1912 and early 1913. An Albion, Michigan, historical marker commemorates Bennard’s work on the hymn there in 1912. Contemporary evidence also places Bennard in revival meetings at the Friends church in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, from December 29, 1912, to January 12, 1913, where witnesses later remembered him working on the song. In a 1947 letter Bennard acknowledged that he had worked on it in Sturgeon Bay and allowed that the local claim that the complete song was first sung there might be correct. Another Michigan tradition, preserved at the Methodist Episcopal church in Pokagon, associates the hymn’s completion with revival work there in January 1913. These overlapping claims are best treated as evidence of a developing composition rather than forced into one exclusive birthplace story.
Bennard’s own 1930 narrative stated that the first public rendition occurred at a convention at the Chicago Evangelistic Institute. Before wider publication, he also sang the manuscript for the Rev. and Mrs. L. O. Bostwick and sent it to established gospel composer Charles H. Gabriel, who encouraged him. Gabriel’s involvement is well documented as encouragement, but the surviving evidence does not justify listing him as the tune’s composer or arranger. Bennard wrote both words and music.
The song was registered for copyright on February 13, 1913. Early sheet-music editions carry the 1913 copyright, although surviving copies can be difficult to date precisely because later printings retained that original notice. The oldest confirmed appearance in a hymnal or songbook is “Heart and Life Songs,” published in Chicago by Institute Press in 1915, a collection Bennard helped edit. Around 1920 Homer A. Rodeheaver’s publishing company acquired the rights and greatly expanded the song’s circulation through print, evangelistic meetings, and recordings.
Rodeheaver and Virginia Asher recorded the hymn for Victor in July 1920, and further commercial recordings followed. Its popularity can be documented rather than merely assumed: George W. Sanville reported that it received the highest number of requests in a survey used in preparing the 1923 “Cokesbury Hymnal,” and a Southern Baptist survey reported in 1939 ranked it fifth among respondents’ favorite hymns. Hymnary now indexes the text and tune in hundreds of hymnals across numerous Protestant traditions.
The song also drew theological criticism. In 1924 Frank C. Huston published a hymn arguing that devotion should center on the Christ of the cross rather than the cross itself, and twentieth-century hymnologist Erik Routley later objected strongly to Bennard’s affectionate treatment of the instrument of execution. Those criticisms highlight a real interpretive issue. Read in the light of Bennard’s own account, however, his purpose was to meditate on Christ’s redemptive work through the symbol of the cross. The original 1913 text and tune are now public domain in the United States; modern arrangements, translations, and recordings may carry separate rights.
Biblical Foundations
Galatians 6:14 gives the hymn one of its clearest theological foundations. Paul refuses every ground of boasting except the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross is therefore not admired as an isolated object; it represents the decisive saving event through which the believer’s relationship to the world has been transformed.
First Corinthians 1:18 explains the hymn’s paradox of disgrace and glory. Crucifixion belonged to the world of shame and execution, yet apostolic preaching announces the message of the cross as God’s power for those being saved. Hebrews 12:2 similarly holds together humiliation and triumph: Jesus endured the cross and its shame before being exalted at God’s right hand.
First Peter 2:24 grounds the hymn’s language of redemption in Christ’s bearing of sin. The verse connects Christ’s suffering with a changed life: those for whom he bore sins are called to die to sin and live to righteousness. This prevents devotion to the cross from becoming mere sentiment; the saving work of Christ leads toward sanctified living.
Revelation 2:10 supplies the New Testament image of the crown of life promised to those who remain faithful through suffering. In the hymn, hope beyond present discipleship is therefore not payment earned by hardship but the promised completion of faithful life under the grace of Christ.
Theological Reflection
The hymn’s primary doctrine is the atoning significance of Christ’s death. The cross is cherished because of the person who suffered there and the redemption Christians confess through his death. Theologically, the song is safest and strongest when attention moves through the cross to Christ rather than stopping at the physical instrument itself.
It also expresses the New Testament reversal of shame and glory. Roman crucifixion was designed to humiliate and destroy, but Christian proclamation interprets the death of Jesus through resurrection and redemption. What appears to be defeat becomes central to the gospel’s announcement of God’s saving work.
A second major theme is discipleship. The hymn does not leave the believer as a spectator at Calvary. Meditation on Christ’s sacrifice becomes a call to fidelity when following Christ carries social cost, suffering, or reproach. In this respect the song joins atonement with sanctification and perseverance.
The crown imagery introduces Christian hope. It should not be interpreted as a transaction in which human suffering purchases eternal life. Revelation presents the crown as God’s promise to those who remain faithful; the believer’s hope rests in Christ’s victory and grace, not in accumulating merit.
The hymn’s history of criticism can also sharpen its use in worship. Churches can sing it devotionally while teaching clearly that Christians worship the crucified and risen Lord, not wood, metal, or a religious symbol. The cross has theological meaning because of Jesus Christ and what God accomplished through him.
Church Impact
The hymn’s reception can be traced through revival culture, denominational hymnals, publishing, and early commercial recording. Homer Rodeheaver, a major song leader in Billy Sunday’s evangelistic campaigns, acquired the publishing rights around 1920 and helped make the hymn widely available. His July 1920 Victor recording with Virginia Asher is an early documented commercial recording of the song.
Its popularity was measurable by the 1920s and 1930s. George W. Sanville reported that the hymn received more requests than any other song in a questionnaire used while preparing the 1923 “Cokesbury Hymnal.” A Southern Baptist survey published in the 1939 “Southern Baptist Handbook” ranked it fifth among respondents’ favorite hymns. Hymnary now records the text and OLD RUGGED CROSS tune in hundreds of hymnals, including Methodist, Baptist, Salvation Army, Adventist, Pentecostal, African Methodist Episcopal, Christian Methodist Episcopal, Reformed, evangelical, and ecumenical collections.
Its reception has never been entirely uncritical. Frank C. Huston’s 1924 response and Erik Routley’s later critique objected to language they believed could direct excessive affection toward the physical cross rather than Christ. That debate has become part of the hymn’s history and provides a useful teaching opportunity about Christian symbols, atonement, and worship.
The song remains particularly associated with Good Friday, Passiontide, funerals, testimony services, and worship centered on Christ’s saving death. Its underlying text and tune are public domain, but congregations should still check the rights attached to modern choral settings, translations, accompaniments, and recordings.
Musical Notes
George Bennard composed OLD RUGGED CROSS for his own text, so the familiar text-and-tune pairing belongs to the hymn’s original history. Hymnary commonly classifies the meter as 12.8.12.8 with refrain, though some hymnals simply label it irregular with refrain. B-flat major is a common hymnal key, but transpositions are frequent.
The melody uses long, expansive phrases that suit the text’s meditative character and require deliberate breathing in congregational singing. The refrain broadens the musical statement and gives the congregation a stronger sense of resolution after the more narrative stanzas. Its shape is characteristic of early twentieth-century gospel song, combining memorable melody with a repeated refrain designed for immediate participation.
A moderate tempo generally serves the tune better than either excessive slowness or a heavily sentimental rubato. Clear forward motion helps the congregation sustain the long phrases while allowing the text’s contrast between suffering, devotion, and hope to remain audible. Modern harmonizations, instrumental settings, and choral arrangements should be distinguished from Bennard’s public-domain underlying song.
Application
- Use Galatians 6:14 to examine what you are tempted to boast in besides the saving work of Christ.
- During Lent or Good Friday, meditate on the cross as both an exposure of sin’s seriousness and a witness to God’s redeeming love.
- Let gratitude for Christ’s sacrifice lead to concrete repentance and righteous living, following the movement of 1 Peter 2:24.
- When discipleship brings misunderstanding or social cost, remember that Christian faithfulness has always involved identifying with a Savior who endured shame.
- Keep devotion centered on Jesus Christ himself; let crosses, hymns, and other Christian symbols direct attention toward the Lord rather than becoming ends in themselves.
Discussion Questions
- Why does the New Testament transform an instrument of public shame into a central symbol of Christian proclamation?
- How does Galatians 6:14 keep devotion to the cross centered on Jesus Christ rather than on a physical object?
- What does 1 Peter 2:24 teach about the relationship between Christ’s saving death and the believer’s changed life?
- How should Christians understand the promise of a crown without turning perseverance into a way of earning salvation?
- Why did some hymn writers and hymnologists criticize the song’s treatment of the cross, and what can that criticism teach us about responsible worship?
- How can the hymn be sung with emotional depth without allowing sentimentality to replace the biblical meaning of Christ’s death?
Teaching Tips
- Present the composition as a process spanning late 1912 and early 1913, while retaining 1913 as the date of the completed and copyrighted song.
- Explain that Albion, Sturgeon Bay, Pokagon, and Chicago preserve different claims about the hymn’s development and early performance; Bennard’s own accounts and contemporary evidence do not support reducing the story to one simple birthplace legend.
- Distinguish Charles H. Gabriel’s documented encouragement from authorship or arrangement: George Bennard wrote both the text and the tune.
- Use the February 13, 1913 copyright registration and the 1915 “Heart and Life Songs” appearance to distinguish composition from the earliest confirmed songbook publication.
- Read Galatians 6:14, 1 Corinthians 1:18, and 1 Peter 2:24 before singing so that devotion remains centered on Christ’s redemptive work.
- Discuss the Frank C. Huston and Erik Routley criticisms as a way to teach that Christian reverence for the cross ultimately concerns the crucified and risen Christ.
Sources
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George Bennard, “The Story of ‘The Old Rugged Cross,’” Albion, Michigan: Bennard Music Co., 1930, Bennard’s own account of the hymn’s composition and early reception.
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George W. Sanville, “The Old Rugged Cross,” in “Forty Gospel Hymn Stories,” Winona Lake, Indiana: Rodeheaver-Hall Mack, 1943, preserving Bennard’s first-person account of studying the cross and developing the song.
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Hymnology Archive, Chris Fenner, “The Old Rugged Cross,” documenting composition traditions, contemporary Sturgeon Bay evidence, February 13, 1913 copyright registration, publication history, criticism, reception, and recordings.
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John H. Baxter, “The Story of the Old Rugged Cross at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin,” 1947, including contemporary newspaper evidence and Bennard’s letter about his work on the hymn there.
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“Heart and Life Songs,” Chicago: Institute Press, 1915, earliest confirmed songbook appearance identified in current hymnological research.
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Hymnary.org, text authority page for “The Old Rugged Cross,” documenting George Bennard, meter, Scripture associations, public-domain status, and extensive hymnal circulation.
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Hymnary.org, tune authority and hymnal records for OLD RUGGED CROSS, documenting Bennard as composer, common B-flat setting, meter, and public-domain status.
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Discography of American Historical Recordings, University of California, Santa Barbara, Victor session of July 7, 1920, documenting Homer A. Rodeheaver and Virginia Asher’s recording of “The Old Rugged Cross.”
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E. P. Alldredge, “Southern Baptist Handbook,” Nashville: Sunday School Board, 1939, reporting the 1938 Southern Baptist hymn-preference survey.
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World English Bible, public-domain Scripture text from eBible.org.
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