The Old Rugged Cross

The Old Rugged Cross is a clear and moving gospel tract centred on the message of the cross and the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Using the familiar and much-loved hymn title as its theme, this tract reflects on the significance of Calvary and explains why the cross remains at the very heart of the Christian message. Written in a warm and accessible style, it presents the seriousness of sin alongside the love of God demonstrated in the giving of His Son.

Firmly rooted in Scripture, The Old Rugged Cross points readers to the forgiveness, salvation, and eternal hope available through faith in the crucified and risen Saviour.

Ideal for Easter outreach, gospel meetings, literature tables, personal evangelism, and community distribution, this tract is a valuable resource for sharing the timeless message of the gospel clearly and compassionately.

Wording Inside:

It ranks as one of the best-loved gospel songs of all time. The author was George Bennard, an officer in the Salvation Army, whose bands and singers made it familiar to many.

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the Dearest and Best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.

The ‘hill far away’ was outside the ancient city of Jerusalem.

The ‘old rugged cross’ stood there around two thousand years ago.

The ‘suffering and shame’ indicates some of the horrors of the crucifixion of Jesus.

Try to imagine the anguish of His hands and feet being torn by long rough nails; the torture of His bones being disjointed as the cross dropped into the ground; the indignity of being stripped and hung up in full view of a taunting mob. In actual fact, the Bible uses the minimum of words to describe the brutal act: it simply says, “They crucified him.” [1]

More space is given to explaining the reasons for His crucifixion. The hymn summarises these when it speaks of the Lord Jesus being slain ‘for a world of lost sinners’.

A world of lost sinners! Is the language too dramatic for your liking? Is it too much to suggest that everyone in the world is a lost sinner? Would you be more comfortable to apply the term just to terrorists, perverts, criminals, lager louts, addicts, and the like?

Lost sinners! The fact is that the Bible places us all in that category: “There is no difference: for all have sinned” [2]. It is so unflattering, but actually none of us has attained the perfect standard that God has set. His Ten Commandments soon show us all up. So we are lost sinners, and as such are exposed to God’s judgement. We all have an appointment with death, and “after this the judgement” [3].

However, we can escape that judgement because the Lord Jesus was ‘slain for lost sinners’ on the old rugged cross. His death was a “sacrifice for sins” [4]. By giving His life, He made it possible for a holy God to save and forgive ‘lost sinners’ like you and me. To experience salvation and pardon, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Bible, God promises that He will forgive each person who does this [5].

For myself, ‘I love that old cross’; ‘I’ll cherish the old rugged cross’. I don’t mean that I idolise the wooden cross on which He died. Rather that for the salvation of my soul I am depending on what He did when He died for me upon that cross.

My passport to Heaven and my escape route from Hell is this, “I am a guilty sinner, but Jesus died for me”.

What about you? The Saviour who died on the cross rose from the dead. This living Saviour waits for you to call upon Him, to trust Him. If you do so the Bible guarantees that you will be saved [6].