Scripture Verse

Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Psalm 60:4

Introduction

portrait
Isaac H. Meredith (1872–1962)

Words: Har­ri­et H. Pier­son, 1910. Pub­lished in Sun­day School Hymns No. 2, ed­it­ed by Is­aac Me­re­dith & Grant C. Tul­lar (New York & Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Tul­lar-Me­re­dith, 1912), num­ber 3.

Music: Is­aac H. Me­re­dith (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

We are march­ing forth to bat­tle,
With our ban­ners all un­furled;
We have joined the Chris­tian ar­my
For the con­quest of the world;
And the sign by which we con­quer
Over each and ev­ery foe,
Is the cross of Christ up­lift­ed
By the van­guard as we go.

Refrain

Marching on, ever on,
Where the cross of Christ we see;
Marching on, ever on,
Marching on to vic­to­ry.

Forward now, oh, loy­al le­gion,
To the fierc­est of the fight,
Let us ne­ver fear nor fal­ter
In the bat­tle for the right;
For the cross of Christ moves on­ward
In a cause that can­not fail,
And the pow­er of Christ, our lead­er,
Is a pow­er that must pre­vail.

Refrain

Not for earth­ly thrones or king­doms,
Not for earth­ly wealth or fame,
Do we wage the Chris­tian war­fare
In the Lord’s all con­quer­ing name;
But to res­cue souls in per­il
From the pow­er of death and sin,
And the glo­ry all un­fad­ing
Of a heav’n­ly crown to win.

Refrain