This hymn was first printed in John Bowring’s Hymns: as a Sequel to the Matins, 1825, and is based on Galatians 6:14: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” There are five stanzas in the original, the omitted fifth being identical with the first. Bowring was born in Heavitree, Exeter, Devonshire, on October 17, 1792, the son of a manufacturer of woolen goods. In the course of his father’s business, he learned sex languages by the time he was 16 years old, as sales were made to many different parts of the world. Ultimately he was reputed to be able to converse in 100 languages, and he published translations from 22. He was the editor of the Westminster Review from 1825 to 1831 but sought a political career. He was Commissioner to France for the British government in 1834—1835 and a member of Parliament from 1835 to 1849. He was British consul at Canton in 1849 and governor of Hong Kong in 1854, which discounts the story  Fatima in Macao. He probably did see the cross, but only 24 years after he had written the hymn. Bowring was knighted in 1854 and died at Claremont, on November 23, 1872. He also wrote SDAH 592, “Watchman, Tell Us of the Night.” He wrote more than 100 hymns—-most of them appearing in Unitarian hymnals, as he was a member of that faith—and 36 volumes on history, travel, biography, poetry, and religion.

RATHBUN was composed in 1849 by Ithamar Conkey and named in honor of Mrs. Beriah S. Rathbun, who was leading soprano oh his choir in the Central Baptist Church in Norwich, Connecticut. It was inspired by his pastor’s sermon on “The Words on the Cross” and also by Bowring’s hymn, which was set to a tune that was not very popular with his choir. The tune first appeared in Henry Greattorex’s (see SDAH 48) Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, 1851.

Conkey was born in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, on May 5, 1815. He was a bass soloist, choir conductor, and organist in Calvary Episcopal Church, and in 1861 soloist and conductor of the Madison Avenue Baptist Church. He died on April 30, 1867, at Elizabeth, New Jersey.

-from Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White