I remember Grandma Snapp playing this. It seemed to me she was playing chords, but this person does a good job of it.

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.

Refrain:
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
and exchange it some day for a crown.

2 O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
has a wondrous attraction for me;
for the dear Lamb of God left his glory above
to bear it to dark Calvary. [Refrain]

3 In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
a wondrous beauty I see,
for ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
to pardon and sanctify me. [Refrain]

4 To that old rugged cross I will ever be true,
its shame and reproach gladly bear;
then he’ll call me some day to my home far away,
where his glory forever I’ll share. [Refrain]

United Methodist Hymnal

The hymn was written the year before my mother was born. Her dad was an itinerant Methodist minster in both Ohio and Kentucky. Her mother played the piano and my mother was forced to stand on a soapbox and lead the hymns. When I was young Mom said she had enough church growing up. My sister and I were dropped off at church. My parents attended at Christmas and Easter if we were singing in the choir. American evangelist and song-leader George Bennard (1873–1958) wrote the hymn.

I remember Grandma Snapp playing this hymn on our piano. She was always uncertain she could reach the chords with the arthritis in her hands. To me she did great! She died at age 79 after breaking her hip and contracting pneumonia.

All these years later, the hymn rings through my soul from time to time. To me the most memorable part is “where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain.” Jesus, our Savior and King. Help us never to forget your cross and all it stood for then and now.