ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Sabine Baring-Gould, was one of the truly gifted preachers and literary men of the nineteenth century.  In addition to being ordained to the Anglican ministry in 1864, he was a noted writer throughout his life.  He published 85 books on such varied subjects as religion, travel, folk-lore, mythology, history, fiction, biography and popular theology.

Yet amazingly enough, the work for which Sabine is best noted is a simple children’s hymn written in 1865.  During an upcoming Sunday school festival, he wanted the children to sing as they marched to a neighboring village.  Not being able to find anything suitable for this purpose, Sabine sat up during the night to write something himself.  ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS was the result.  It had been written in great haste and he knew some of the rhymes were faulty.  “I am certain that nothing has surprised me more than its popularity!”, he remarked.

Sabine Baring Gould, lived to age ninety and died in 1924, yet his hurriedly written hymn, ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS is still marching on from the lips of young and old alike.  You may want to march when you sing it!