HYMNS THAT HAVE HELPED.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 57, 28 February 1913, Page 8

HYMNS THAT HAVE HELPED.

la. t" -i\'"'""'?- j"- r " .''"*•:4. "'"'' ' "1' * ' fi>if % ~ SddUtfs* ■':• J #&v<ibißß w "to- war, *■* \ With' the cross of Jesus - ' {jtaing.-on before; '.Christ, the Royal Master, Jueada against' the toe; - forward into battle, See, tfis-banners go. At the; sign of triumph Satan : s nost doth liee; On, then, Christian soldiers, On to victory. Sell's foundations' quiver • At tlie shout of praise; Brofhers, lift your voices, Loud your, anthems raise. Like a mighty army , Moves the Church of God; Brothers, we are treading the saints have trod; We are not divided, All one body we, One in hope and doctrine, One in charity. Crowns and thrones may perish, Kingdoms rise and wane. But the Church of Jesus Constant will remain; Gates of bell can never 'Gainst that Church prevail; We have Christ's own promise, And that cannot fail. 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.

We have always thought it remarkable that the genesis of some things that stand out prominently in the cosmos of ours, and that affect people's imagination, has been begun amid very trivial and humble circumstances. For example, no one with the most fertile sweep of imagination would'have foretold that the great Empire of India, with its diverse peoples and equally diverse dialects; its colossal. wealth, and barbaric splendor, its warlike hflltribes, and its cunning and keen Bengai _ merchants, its splendid fields and navigable rivers, __ would have been added to the British Empire as the result of the commerce and merchandise of a handful of traders who called themselves the East Indian Company. Innumerable examples may be given of this truth. no thought or intention'of the splendid result that has often been the product of human intellect, imagination, and, best of all, endeavor, authors and creators of imperishable things have launched their products oniiuman outlook. The statue of Sir Walter Scott, in Princes Street, Edinburgh, than which, viewed as a compact piece of imaginative architecture, not the ancient acropolis of Athens, or the Coliseum of Rome, or our St- Paul's in London, are more splendid, was the work of a working stone-mason, unskilled in architecture ] or even in architectural drawing. But j in trivial mood, to beguile a leisure i hour, he had pieced together in his memory, aided by his own imagination, the copies of Byzantine, Gothic, and , castellated architecture, and when the memorial to the "Wizard of the ] North" was discussed, he asked to i be allowed to submit his plans along I with the famous architect. He re-' ceived help from expert drawers, and, to the wonder of everyone, his designs were accepted, resulting in a ; stately embodiment. But in a. large' proportion of these adventitious results that arise altogether out of proportion , to the trivial circumstances that gave them birth, necessity is the force that governs. We are al familiar with the trite saying that '.'with the hour comes the man." It is especially true of the i subject of the hymn that is before us this week. I

Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, rector of Lew-Trenchard. the accomplished author, never for a moment dreamed, when in a moment of dilemma, at not being possessed of a hymn to suit a certain occasion, he snt down to write one to supply the deficiency—that his composition would obtain such popularity. The occasion was one when a great school festival'was to be held, in 1855, in a Yorkshire village, at which thousands of children were to ue riosent. Mr Baring-Gould had probably in his mind that what.was needed'most was a spirit of martial animaiiin. i feeling of comradeship among the e! ildreii; and that to foster this, a quitx movement in the song and upwml rxhilaration of feeling and strength in the language, with a background of pathos were needed. Looking over his Bymology,. he could discover nothing to suit his purpose. On the Sam: day evening preceding the celebrativi. with ' a very clear and precise idea in his mind that the march to the place of festival would be enlivened by retrain elements of thought and expression, he penned rapidly his composition, which, when set to music as enthusm-ic, stirring, and befitting as the verse by the great composer, Arthur Sullivan, took the world afterwards by >toriti. Mr Baring-Gould is an author r.*large compass and vision. His works are both manifold and various, ittr J. M. Barriej no mean critic, says of bim, "He has powerful imagination and i< quaintly fanciful. When hj? o-?- ' scribes a storm, one can see thexUtt-s break in the gale." *V« shall now consider the tr-ie rahe

_■>? :!<:< moving hymn, in its pi>--. - li.olt>j;ical effect. What is its immediate and distant effect on mind. We h;->c listened to its rendering in the midst of, <md judged its effect on, the stmbnn t sTfiivnrt warrior fresh from hiJl luMieb of Dargal and Chitral, and the capture of the trenches of Omdurman; we have heard it sung in a college chapel at the church parades of university volunteers; we have taken part in it at a Boys' Brigade and Scout churr-n parade; we have even helped to swell the chorus in its rather irreverent application to a torchlight procession in honor N ' of a Lord Sector of a University. The verse of "Onward, Christian Soldiers," is not great poetry—not the poetry that lies imprisoned in Newman's "LeatT. Kindly Light," Yet it get* under the skin "of the plain people. It is rhythmic. It is suggestive. A yotfthful and enthusiastic missionary, wrot* from Osaka, Japan during th« Russo-Japanese War: "I spent last Saturday down at the harhjjr watching hundreds of Japanese troops embafkihK on several large transports to go to ' the seat of war. We occupied the place '' allotted to Christians on the wide harbor road down which marched the soldiers, healthy, strong and determinedlooking, i'wofc'sfewo silk flags, and 1

mmots a}id .mishj*, of the xjffit£ .."'Oae"'Ot;o«r Missionaries, Jguwi ;fcelp w« sank 7 Christian Soldiers,* the obfect being to vaitx the Christian Japanese whom we knew to be in the ranks. Tears ctttne to our eyes,as We'saw one Christian after another raise his hand or give r , some other sign to let us' know that -he - appreciated our being there and singing for him our song of encouragement; and with grateful looks he passed on."