Monday, June 29, 2009

"He is Succour to the brave"

With Independence Day at the end of this week, I have resurrected my blogging for a bit. Tonight we shall visit a beautiful old hymn written in the shadow of a camp of Union soldiers stationed outside Washington D.C. early in the Civil War. I always enjoy looking up the lyrics to these old hymns as they are inevitably richer than the few verses I tend to remember. I do sing this one to my children at bedtime. However, I usually can only remember the 1st, 2nd, and 5th verses.


There is so much more here, I may have to expend some effort to recall them all next I share this with my little ones.

BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His day is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on."
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Since God is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
While God is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Remembering June 6th, 1944


As regular readers know, this blog has rather fallen into the "something has to go" category for quite some time. However, I can never let June 6th go by without remembering the sacrifice made by the Allied soldiers on this day, now 65 years ago. Rather than take the time to write a new post I'm linking to last year's remembrance. I look forward to resuming regular posting once I've finished a few other projects.



~ Gabriel