Becoming convinced that the cross was not merely a symbol of Christianity but the very heart of it, he spent long hours in study, prayer, and mediation until one day a hymn began to formulate itself in his mind. Late in the fall of 1912, after an especially difficult experience in a New York meeting, Bennard returned to Albion and began reflecting on the meaning of the cross in the life of the believer.
EXCHANGE IT SOMEDAY FOR A CROWN FULL
When his family responsibilities lessened, he and his wife became full time Salvation Army workers, but after several years he resigned this work, joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, and moved to Albion, MI, spending many years as a travelling evangelist throughout the north-central United States and Canada. Later he moved his mother and sisters to Illinois, where he eventually married. Although he wanted to become a minister, his father died when George was sixteen, leaving him as sole support for his mother and four sisters, so further education was impossible. The Bennard family moved to Albia, IA, when George was a small child, and from there to Lucas, IA, where George entered the ranks of the Salvation Army. The text was written and the tune (Rugged Cross) was composed both by George Bennard, who was born at Youngstown, OH, on Feb. INTRO.: A song which reminds us of the importance of the cross on which Jesus died at Golgotha is "The Old Rugged Cross" (#578 in Hymns for Worship Revised, and #322 in Sacred Selections for the Church). "And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called…Golgotha" (Jn.
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