Scripture Verse

March on, my soul, with strength! Judges 5:21

Introduction

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John Goss (1800–1880)
National Portrait Gallery

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Words: George T. Cos­ter. Writ­ten in Bed­ford Park, Lon­don, Au­gust 3, 1897, and pub­lished in The Ev­an­ge­li­cal Ma­ga­zine, Feb­ru­ary 1898.

Music: Ar­thur’s Seat John Goss, in Hymns and Songs of Praise (New York: 1874) (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

March on, O soul, with strength!
Like those strong men of old
Who ’gainst en­thron­èd wrong
Stood con­fi­dent and bold;
Who, thrust in pri­son or cast to flame
Still made their glo­ry in Thy name.

The sons of fa­thers we
By whom our faith is taught
To fear no ill, to fight
The holy fight they fought;
Heroic war­ri­ors, ne’er from Christ
By any lure or guile en­ticed.

March on, O soul, with strength,
As strong the bat­tle rolls!
’Gainst lies and lusts and wrongs,
Let cour­age rule our souls;
In keen­est strife, Lord, may we stand,
Upheld and strength­ened by Thy hand.

Not long the con­flict: soon
The ho­ly war shall cease,
Faith’s war­fare ended, won
The home of end­less peace!
Look up! the vic­tor’s crown at length!
March on, O soul, march on, with strength!