Description

A Children’s Marching Song

It began in May 1864, when thirty-year-old Sabine Baring-Gould, newly ordained Anglican
minister, set out for the small English community known as Horbury Bridge, where his calling
was as curate or caretaker, and his charge was to open a new Church mission for children. He
rented a cottage and established his school. Adults as well as children attended the school.
Baring-Gould’s purpose “was not just to educate and civilise people, but also to help them take
on the Christian faith. He was very successful and within a short time a Mission Chapel was
erected and opened in November 1865.

In those days and in that part of England, the people celebrated Whitsun, which commemorated
the Day of Pentecost in the Book of Acts. This holiday was marked with fairs, pageants,
parades, and new clothes.

According to historical accounts, “In 1865, The vicar at St. Peter’s church decided that the
Horbury Bridge Mission scholars should join them. Baring-Gould was asked to conduct them to
St. Peter’s and the route from Horbury Bridge was then, as it is now, up Quarry Hill and beyond
for over a mile. Fearful the little ones would straggle all over the place when climbing Quarry
Hill, Baring-Gould decided that singing a hymn would help make their long journey that much
easier for the children.”

According to Baring-Gould’s own account,

I had resolved that the [Bridge] children should come up to the parish church on Whitsun
Tuesday. Mr. Fred Knowles came to me at the vicarage and asked what they should sing
on the day of the long walk. We discussed one thing and then another, then I said, ‘I’ll
write a processional.’ Mr. Knowles replied ‘You must be sharp about it, as this is Saturday
and there will shortly be no printing done.’ So, I sat down and wrote the hymn. It was
printed, practised on the Sunday afternoon, and it was sung to the tune of Haydn on the
Tuesday.

According to various accounts, Baring-Gould sat up all night struggling with what to write for
the forthcoming march and finally, in a flash of inspiration, he either composed or completed
some lines, borrowed a tune, and went to face his students. It was printed and distributed to his
young charges. They quickly learned it and on the appointed day, marched up the hill singing the
processional song that Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould never intended to publish. It was meant
for that day and only to inspire and impress upon his students that they were soldiers for Christ
after the manner spoken of by the Apostle Paul when he said to Timothy, “Thou therefore endure
hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

The students sang:

Onward, Christian soldiers,
marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
going on before!

Christ, the royal Master,
leads against the foe;
Forward into battle,
see his banner go!

Years later, Sabine Baring Gould would say of that hymn:

It was written in great haste, and I am afraid some of the rhymes are faulty. Certainly
nothing has surprised me more than its popularity. I don’t remember how it got printed
first, but I know that very soon it found its way into several collections. I have written a
few other hymns since then, but only two or three have become at all well known.”

In 1871, the great composer Arthur Sullivan set the words to a new tune widely sung by
Christians today. That song, intended to inspire faith and courage in children, has become one of
the most beloved hymns of all time. Who can measure how many hearts have been inspired with
courage by the simple gift of a children’s processional hymn.

Part II

One such memorable moment in the history of this great hymn occurred in August 1941, when
United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sailed to a secret location in the north
Atlantic to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Roosevelt eluded reporters
under cover of darkness and went to rendezvous with Churchill aboard the British battleship,
Prince of Wales. This was a critical meeting. England was fighting with its back against the
wall, determined to stand against Nazi Germany at all costs. The United States had not yet
entered the War, but their help was sorely needed. The two men talked for four days. Then on
Sunday, Roosevelt was transported to the Prince of Wales for a morning Church service. All the
fighting men aboard, together with two of the most powerful leaders on earth, met on the
Quarterdeck for a worship service for which Prime Minister Churchill chose the hymns—his
favorites. The effect of that inspiring service, as Roosevelt described it, “cemented us.” Among
the hymns sung that morning was “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Churchill would later describe
that morning as “A great hour to live.” In a subsequent radio broadcast, Churchill spoke of this
meeting and of that hymn.

We sang “Onward, Christian Soldiers” indeed, and I felt that this was no vain
presumption, but that we had the right to feel that we were serving a cause for the sake of
which a trumpet has sounded from on high. When I looked upon that densely packed
congregation of fighting men of the same language, of the same faith, of the same
fundamental laws, of the same ideals … it swept across me that here was the only hope,
but also the sure hope, of saving the world from measureless degradation.

Sources:

https://www.ossett.net/beyond/Sabine_Baring_Gould.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitsun
https://www.ossett.net/beyond/Sabine_Baring_Gould.html
2 Timothy 2:3 KJV