"Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?"

Recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford at San Quentin Prison with the Prison Choir.

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Today we are revisiting at Sometimes a Song, as seems appropriate to the Saturday before Easter, a folk hymn that some of our readers have heard before. My introduction to this week’s song, “Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone? will be brief, but pointed. Like many of you here at Word & Song, I have known hymns like this from childhood. And in my childhood, it was very common for famous popular entertainers and singers to release albums of sacred music, most usually hymns. I feel pretty confident when I say that such recordings were not made because the companies in control of what music was produced then were particularly religious. Some individual producers were, and others without question were not. But what they all knew was that such albums as the one our hymn today was recorded for would SELL, and not just to niche audiences. And it wasn’t by far only country and western singers who recorded albums of sacred music. a

Still, even though it was pretty common before the 1970’s for mainstream entertainers to do sacred music, today’s recording is not typical of the albums they made. Why? Because Tennessee Ernie Ford decided to record his album, named after the very fitting title hymn, “We Gather Together,” at San Quintin Prison, accompanied by the 40-member prison choir. In all, the men recorded twelve hymns, each specially scored for the album by Mr. Ford’s arranger, Jack Fascinato, who had a full career composing quality children’s music. (Among other things, he was the music director for the television puppet show, “Kukla, Fran, and Ollie.”) Quite a number of popular singers and bands entertained at prisons in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but I believe that Ernie Ford was the first name entertainer to record an actual album in a prison, and the only artist to employ inmates in the production, rather than just recording a concert on site. Later in the decade, Johnny Cash made a series of prison-recorded concert albums, and a number of other entertainers and bands released some prison-concert recordings. But I know of nothing else in the genre of popular music like the album, “We Gather Together.”

So here, as we contemplate the great gift of Easter, is Tennessee Ernie Ford, singing “Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?” with the San Quentin Prison Choir (1963). I’ve included a little bit about the history of the hymn below for those who might like to learn more. I hope that this recording will be a blessing to you all at this holy season.

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Must Jesus bear the cross alone
And all the world go free?
No, there's a cross for ev'ry one,
And there's a cross for me.

The consecrated cross I'll bear
Till death shall set me free,
And then go home my crown to wear,
For there's a crown for me.

Upon the crystal pavement, down
At Jesus' pierced feet,
Joyful, I'll cast my golden crown
And His dear name repeat.

O precious cross! O glorious crown!
O resurrection day!
Ye angels, from the stars come down
And bear my soul away.

Note: The hymn text as originally written by Thomas Shepherd (see below) appears in a collection of hymns known as Penitential Cries (1735). But it was heavily adapted and altered over the next one hundred years. The version most used now was first published in a collection compiled by Henry Ward Beecher, who seems to have added a the final two verses (1835). The hymn appears in The Oberlin Social and Sabbath School Hymn Book (1849) by George N. Allen, composer of the tune (Maitland) that we associate with “Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone.”

Must Simon* bear the cross alone, 
And other saints be free? 
Each saint of thine shall find his own 
And there is one for me. 
Whene'er it falls unto my lot, 
Let it not drive me from 
My God, let me ne'er be forgot 
‘Till thou hast lov'd me home.  

*Simon of Cyrene

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