1 Never further than thy cross,
never higher than thy feet!
Here earth’s precious things seem dross,
here earth’s bitter things grow sweet.
2 Gazing thus, our sin we see,
learn thy love while gazing thus--
sin, which laid the cross on thee,
love which bore the cross for us.
3 Here we learn to serve and give,
and, rejoicing, self deny;
here we gather love to live,
here we gather faith to die.
4 Symbols of our liberty
and our service here unite;
captives, by thy cross set free,
soldiers of thy cross, we fight.
5 Pressing onward as we can,
still to this our hearts must tend,
where our earliest hopes began,
there our last aspirings end,
6 till amid the hosts of heaven,
we, in thee redeemed, complete,
through thy cross all sins forgiven,
cast our crowns before thy feet.