Onward, Christian Soldiers
Onward, Christian Soldiers
Onward, Christian soldiers!
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before.
Christ, the royal Master,
Leads against the foe;
Forward into battle,
See His banners go!
Onward, Christian soldiers,
Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
Going on before.
Like a mighty army
Moves the Church of God;
Brothers, we are treading
Where the saints have trod;
We are not divided,
All one body we,
One in hope and doctrine,
One in charity.
Onward, then, ye people,
Join our happy throng,
Blend with ours your voices
In the triumph song;
Glory, laud, and honor
Unto Christ the King;
This through countless ages
Men and angels sing.
EVER SINCE the apostle Paul told the Ephesian Christians to put on the armor of God, Christian writers have used the symbolism of the soldier as a call for preparedness and courage. But when Sabine Baring-Gould, a thirty-one-year-old preacher and schoolteacher, wrote “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” he simply wanted to write a marching song for his schoolchildren. Later, he apologized for the hymn: “It was written in great haste, and I am afraid that some of the rhymes are faulty.”
Whitmonday was a festival day for schoolchildren in Yorkshire, and Baring-Gould’s youngsters in the mill town of Horbury had to walk to a neighboring town to join other children for the celebration. “I wanted the children to sing when marching from one village to the other, but couldn’t think of anything quite suitable,” Baring-Gould commented, “so I sat up at night and resolved to write something myself.”
Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them.
2 Timothy 2:3-4
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