Scripture Verse

Captain of their salvation… Hebrews 2:10

Introduction

Words & Mu­sic: James V. Reid, 1918 (🔊 pdf nwc). The phrase go­ing ov­er the top was born in the trench war­fare of World War I: At­tacks start­ing from trench­es re­quired in­fan­try to climb ov­er the top of the pa­ra­pet be­fore they could cross no man’s land to reach the ene­my trench­es.

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

Lyrics

There’s a bat­tle rag­ing
Over the land and sea,
True to Christ our cap­tain we will be;
Satan’s hosts are migh­ty,
Fighting for ru­in and sin,
But in this great con­flict
Right is sure to win.

Refrain

Over the top for Je­sus brave­ly we will go:
Over the top for Je­sus, rout­ing ev­ery foe,
Never de­lay­ing when we hear the bu­gle blow,
We’ll fight for right with all our might,
As ov­er the top we go.

There’s a cry of sor­row
Rising from hearts op­pressed,
There’s a world in sad­ness and un­rest;
But the hope that thrills us,
Looking out in­to the night,
Christ, the Lord of bat­tles,
Leads me in the fight.

Refrain

When the pow­ers of earth
Before our Re­deem­er shall kneel,
When the joy of tri­umph we shall feel;
Then with Christ who con­quered,
Into the realms of the blest,
We shall march in vic­to­ry
To eter­nal rest.

Refrain