THE CROSS NOW COVERS MY SINS

Heather Allington

Heather writes for Sunday Song Book on behalf of the The Salvation Army Oshawa. As a lifelong member of the Army, she has loved these familiar - and some less familiar - songs for many years, and enjoys researching and writing about their origins. She is a wife, mother, grandmother and retired elementary school teacher who likes trying her hand at watercolour painting and poetry writing.

I stand all bewildered with wonder
And gaze on the ocean of love,
And over its waves to my spirit
Comes peace like a heavenly dove.

CHORUS:
The cross now covers my sins;
The past is under the blood;
I’m trusting in Jesus for all;
My will is the will of my God.

I struggled and wrestled to win it –
The blessing that setteth me free;
But when I had ceased from my struggling,
His peace Jesus gave unto me.

He laid His hand on me and healed me,
And bade me be every whit whole;
I touched but the hem of His garment,
And glory came thrilling my soul.

The Prince of my peace is now passing;
The light of His face is on me;
But listen, belovèd, He speaketh:
“My peace I will give unto thee.”

Old-fashioned words for an ever-present need – peace within us. The song mentions various ways to receive the peace Christ wants to give: allowing His love to wash over us, stopping our struggles to find peace, and coming close to Him in faith: “touching the hem of His garment”.

One assumes that the author, Wilbur Fisk Crafts, knew personally this experience of peace in order to write of it as he did. He grew up as a minister’s son in the U.S A., and became a pastor of several churches himself. He founded the American Sabbath Union as well as the International Reform Bureau, remaining as superintendent of the latter for 25 years. Crafts contributed widely to magazines and wrote many books. He was also a member of a national commission that framed an amendment to prohibition laws.