I don’t know how familiar American Christians are with today’s glorious hymn. It was written in 1887 by Englishman George W. Kitchin (1827-1912) of Christ Church, Oxford, as a festival-style hymn, and revised in 1916 by Englishman Michael R. Newbolt (1874-1956) into what we sing today.
It remains under copyright, so I’ll link to the song sheet so you can read or sing along with the orchestra in the video above.
My response to this hymn is personal and of no importance, but I’ll mention it. When I worked at the headquarters of a large Lutheran Church body which was even then (long ago) sliding leftward, I noticed that the most progressive people loved this hymn. So I figured there must be something subtly wrong with it.
I’m sure that’s unfair.
That would be rotten. I hope there’s nothing wrong with it. I see that I didn’t actually make the link to the text, so let me fix that.
Maybe progressives(transgressives) would allegorize Christ and the cross. I don’t see a problem with the fairly simple words as sung.