Onward Christian soldiers

Sabine Baring-Gould wrote 85 books in areas as diverse as religion, travel, folklore, mythology, history, fiction, biography, sermons, and popular theology. He wrote a 15-volume "Lives of the Saints". He edited a quarterly review of ecclesiastical art and literature. But he loved children, and we remember him best for his children's hymns: "Onward Christian Soldiers" and "Now the Day is Over".

After graduating from Cambridge, Baring-Gould started a church in his tiny 2-floor apartment. Soon, he said, "the congregation filled the room and the stairs and the kitchen. ... The singing had to bump down the stairs, fill the kitchen, and one strain of the tune after another came up irregularly through the chinks of the floor." - Great Songs of Faith by Brown & Norton

I so much love this music... Whenever the boko haram strike and the soldiers are going to take attack, I always remember this hymn

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!

This hymn was sung at the fun­er­al of Amer­i­can pre­si­dent Dwight Ei­sen­how­er at the Na­tion­al Ca­thed­ral, Wash­ing­ton, DC, March 1969.

"Whit-Mon­day is a great day for school fes­tiv­als in York­shire. One Whit-Mon­day, thir­ty years ago, it was ar­ranged that our school should join forc­es with that of a neigh­bor­ing vil­lage. I want­ed the child­ren to sing when march­ing from one vil­lage to another, but couldn’t think of any­thing quite suit­a­ble; so I sat up at night, re­solved that I would write some­thing myself. “Onward, Christ­ian Sol­diers” was the re­sult. It was writ­ten in great haste, and I am afraid some of the rhymes are faulty. Cer­tain­ly no­thing has sur­prised me more than its pop­u­lar­i­ty. I don’t re­mem­ber how it got print­ed first, but I know that very soon it found its way into sev­er­al col­lect­ions. I have writ­ten a few other hymns since then, but only two or three have be­come at all well-known." - Sabine Baring-Gould

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The 2nd stanza, 1st line was improved from "at the sign of triumph" to "at the name of Jesus".

3rd stanza, last 2 lines, originally said, "One in hope and doctrine, one in charity."

4th stanza originally said "'gainst that church" instead of "'gainst the church". I prefer the original in this instance. Same meaning, but more emphatic.

The chorus last lines are "looking unto Jesus, who is gone before"

church of Christ, wherever we are , we are ONE, One in His spirit, One in His Name, scattered physically though we be , we are UNITED IN THE NAME OF JESUS. Wherever and whenever you pray always agree with the true Body of Christ, His believers, His real church. Maranatha Lord, Maranatha!

My Dad's favorite! He's in heaven now. This song brings back memories of standing by him in church, singing with all his might!

I like this song because of the motivating words and music.