Scripture Verse

Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. Mark 8:34

Introduction

Words: Ca­ro­line L. Shack­lock, in The In­ter­na­tion­al Les­son Hym­nal (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Da­vid C. Cook, 1878), num­ber 162.

Music: Cli­gnan­court Charles E. Poll­ock, 1878 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Shack­lock or Poll­ock (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

We are pressing, on­ward pressing,
In the straight and nar­row way,
For it lead­eth to the king­dom,
To the land of end­less day.
And we fol­low, glad­ly fol­low,
Counting nei­ther gain nor loss,
In the foot­steps of our Sav­ior,
In the sha­dow of the cross.

While it fall­eth on our path­way,
It will lead our steps aright;
From the pit­falls that beset us,
From the dark­ness to the light.
Of our ho­ly faith the token,
And the sign which seals our vow,
’Tis the sym­bol of our war­fare
And we glad­ly fo­llow now.

We are near­ing, we are near­ing
Heaven, our eter­nal home;
From those man­sions of the bless­èd,
We shall ne­ver wish to roam.
With the Sav­ior we have fol­lowed,
We the crown of life shall wear,
In His pre­sence dwell for­ev­er,
And the cross no long­er bear.