Scripture Verse

The Lord of hosts is summoning His army for battle. Isaiah 13:4

Introduction

Words: Lau­ra W. Rice, in the Mis­sion­ary Ser­vic­es and Hym­nal (Bal­ti­more, Ma­ry­land: Ge­ne­ral Li­te­ra­ture Com­mit­tee of the Wo­man’s Home and For­eign Mis­sion­ary So­ci­ety of the Lu­ther­an Church, 1895), num­ber 58.

Music: Dai­ly, Dai­ly Hen­ri F. He­my, 1865 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Rice or He­my (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Hosts of God go forth to bat­tle
In His name and for His laws:
Wrong and sin are camped around you,
Onward! ’tis a glo­ri­ous cause.
Christ is such a migh­ty lead­er—
Though the fight be hard and long,
That the end is sure­ly vic­to­ry,
Heaven will shout the con­quer­or’s song.

Bound in chains your breth­ren lang­uish,
Slaved by Sa­tan, kept by sin;
Force a way to dark­est dun­geons,
Let the glo­ri­ous light stream in.
Only Je­sus can re­lease them,
He, your cap­tain, points the way;
Follow, fol­low, He is wai­ting:
Where He leads, should we de­lay?

Dare we rest in ease and plea­sure,
Call our lives or gold our own,
While, in hea­then dark­ness ly­ing,
Millions bow to gods of stone?
Beds of ease are Sa­tan’s dun­geons,
Liberty with Christ is found,
And His hosts are ev­er march­ing
Onward to new bat­tle­ground.

Forward, then, ye ran­somed cap­tives!
Christ, the lead­er, set you free!
Since He saved you from the dun­geon,
March with Him to vic­to­ry!
Living for Him, dy­ing for Him,
Noblest souls were ev­er found
With this lead­er and such com­rades—
This is glo­ri­ous bat­tle­ground.