441 In the Cross of Christ I Glory

It is hard to believe that the author of this hymn text was called “the most unpopular governor Hong Kong ever had!”  But the facts of history cannot be denied.  The explanation may lie in the change wrought in an idealistic youth who wrote his splendid hymns before he was thirty-five, and then was corrupted by power.

 All who have heard the sacred hymn, "In the Cross of Christ I Glory" love it; and it adds to its beauty to learn about how it was written.  Sir John Bowring, the noted naturalist, linguist, statesman, financier, was the author. This gifted man was at one time the governor of Hong Kong. It was he who invented the florin, a two-shilling piece greatly used in England. He could write in thirteen different languages and dialects. His education was of the right sort, for it led him to a deeper worship of the Crucified One.

One time when he was in the Orient, he was gazing at a tract of land which had been devastated by an earthquake. He noticed the tower of a church standing among the ruins, and on the top of the tower a cross. The sight of this prompted him to write the great hymn in 1825, inspired by the words of St. Paul in Galatians 6:14, “Far be it for me to glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

The tune for this hymn, Rathbun, was composed by Ithamar Conkey, the organist at Central Baptist Church in Norwich, Connecticut.   In 1849 the pastor of the church had planned a series of sermons on the seven last words of Christ on the cross. According to the local newspaper, Mr. Conkey was very disappointed on a particularly rainy Sunday morning because his choir members did not appear, save one soprano. After the prelude, he closed the organ, locked it and went home. The organ loft was situated In such a way that he was able to leave the service without the congregation or the pastor being aware of his departure. 

Later that afternoon while Mr.Conkey was practicing the piano at home, he began thinking about the topic of the sermons.  There was a hymn that was entitled "In the Cross of Christ I Glory" . As Mr Conkey was considering the hymn text, he decided then and there to compose a tune for the words. The result was the tune,  Rathbun,  that is now universally associated with the hymn. He later admitted that the inspiration for the tune was a vivid contradiction of the feeling at the morning service. Where did the name, Rathun come from? The one choir member, that one faithful soprano, who showed up on that rainy Sunday in 1849? Mrs. Beriah S. Rathbun.