Soldiers of Christ, Arise

SOLDIERS OF CHRIST, ARISE, # 552 in 1940 Hymnal, 1 July 2025 Anno Domini, the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide

 

“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.”

1 Corinthians 16:13

 

​In America, we are within days of our celebration of Independence – the 4th of July! It seems fitting that our hymn selection should pay homage to the courageous men and women who have preserved our freedoms in Christ over the past two centuries and a half. Be not deceived, there has never been a free people without the Christian religion as its ensign.

​This hymn is composed by Charles Wesley in 1749 to the tune Diademata by George Elvey.

 

SOLDIERS OF CHRIST, ARISE

 

Soldiers of Christ, arise,
and put your armor on, strong 

in the strength which God supplies
through his eternal Son;

Strong in the Lord of hosts,
and in his mighty power:
who in the strength of Jesus trusts
is more than conqueror.

Stand then in his great might,
with all his strength endured,
and take, to arm you for the fight,
the panoply of God.

From strength to strength go on,
wrestle and fight and pray:
tread all the powers of darkness down,
and win the well-fought day.

That, having all things done,
and all your conflicts past,
ye may obtain, through Christ alone,
a crown of joy at last.

 

Soldiers of Christ, arise, and put your armor on, strong in the strength which God supplies through his eternal Son; This hymn sounds reveille to the troops of the Lord to prepare for the unending battle. It is time to awaken and arise and take up the arms of the Word and Spirit. Of course, in this mortal existence, the battle is unending, but the unconditional victory lies ahead at the time of the Lord’s proclamation.

Strong in the Lord of hosts, and in his mighty power: who in the strength of Jesus trusts is more than conqueror. Indeed, the battle belongs to the Lord. We fight under the terms of His power and not our own. Whether our field command is composed of a single company, or several army brigades, the victory is just as certain. We battle under His flag and His orders. The victory is not a singular one, but total and final – with Him, we are more than conquerors.

Stand then in his great might, with all his strength endured, and take, to arm you for the fight, the panoply of God. We do not repose on past laurels of victory, but must muster our best attributes of spiritual warfare for the great battle that continues in the hotly contested line. We must not be slack in our armaments, but our battle attire is the full armor of God.

From strength to strength go on, wrestle and fight and pray: tread all the powers of darkness down,and win the well-fought day. Every engagement with the enemy is ended in strength and not a slacking frailty of arms. Not only do we carry on with courage in propagating the Gospel message across our battle lines, but we must reinforce our army with the power of fervent prayer. Our daily battle continues till the curtain of darkness falls and we are victorious; but the sun also rises again to draw us to the renewed battle which never ends until the Lord declares the total vanquishment of the enemy on the field.

That, having all things done, and all your conflicts past, ye may obtain, through Christ alone, a crown of joy at last. On the Great Day following our last battle, the Great Captain of our souls shall pin upon our breasts the medal of victory everlasting. Our part in the battle has been solely as vicegerents of Christ. It was His power that carried the lines. He alone is the victor, but He allows us to share in the joy of it and to partake of the fruits of victory in Him alone.

 

 I BE YOUR LEGS - the gratitude of heroism

    Bob Butler lost his legs in a 1965 land mine explosion in Vietnam. He returned home a war hero. Twenty years later, he proved once again that heroism comes from the heart.

 

    Butler was working in his garage in a small town in Arizona on a hot summer day when he heard a woman's screams coming from a nearby house. He began rolling his wheelchair toward the house but the dense shrubbery wouldn't allow him access to the back door. So he got out of his chair and started to crawl throught the dirt and bushes. 

 

        "I had to get there,"he says, "It didn't matter how much it hurt.

      "When Butler arrived at the pool there was a three-year-old girl

named Stephanie Hanes lying at the bottom. She had been born without arms and had fallen in the water and couldn't swim. Her mother stood over her baby screaming frantically. Butler dove to the bottom of the pool and brought little Stephanie up to the deck. Her face was blue, and she had no pulse and was not breathing. Butler immediately went to work performing CPR to revive her while Stephanie's mother telephoned the fire department. She was told the paramedics were already out on a call. Helplessly, she sobbed and hugged Butler's shoulders.

 

    As Butler continued with his CPR, he calmly reassured her."Don't worry,"he said. "I was her arms to get out of the pool. It'll be okay. I am now her lungs. Together we can make it." Seconds later the little girl coughed, regained conciousness, and began to cry. As they hugged and rejoiced together the  mother asked Butler how he knew it would be okay.

 

        The truth is, I didn't know." he told her. "But when my legs were blown off in the war, I was all alone in a field. No one was there to help me except a little Vietnamese girl. As she struggled to drag me into her village, she whispered in broken English, "it's okay. You live. I be your legs. Together we make it." Her kind word brought hope in my soul and I wanted to do the same for Stephanie."

 

        There are simply those times when we cannot stand alone. There are those times when we need Someone to be our legs, arms, and our Friend.

 "There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother" - the Lord Jesus Christ, and He always has time for us.

 

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting  -  by William Wordsworth

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar:

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home:

Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

Shades of the prison-house begin to close

Upon the growing Boy,

But He beholds the light, and whence it flows,

He sees it in his joy;

The Youth, who daily farther from the east

Must travel, still is Nature's Priest,

And by the vision splendid

Is on his way attended;

At length the Man perceives it die away,

And fade into the light of common day.

 The Preacher’s Mistake - by WM. Doane

 

1- The Parish Priest

Of austerity,

Climbed up in a high church steeple

To be near the Lord,

So that he might hand

God's Word down to His people.

 

When the sun was high,

When the sun was low,

The good man sat unheeding.

Sublunary things,

From transcendency,

He was forever reading.

 

And now and again

When he heard the creak

Of the weather vane a-turning,

He closed his eyes

And said, "Of a truth

From God I now am learning."

 

2- And in sermon script

He daily wrote

What he thought was sent from Heaven,

And he dropped this down

On his people's heads

Two times one day in seven.

In his age God said,

"Come down and die!"

And he cried out from the steeple,

"Where art Thou, Lord?"

And the Lord replied,

"Down here among My people."

 

"The Preacher's Mistake" by William Croswell Doane

 THE CRIMSON WORM, Logos of St Andrews Fall 1998 by Jerry Ogles

    Psalm 22, a messianic psalm, begins with these woeful and wonderful words, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

    Of the seven words from the cross, these words are perhaps the most mysterious. And of these words, the central word is, 'WHY?' Why did the Creator of the world and the King of Glory condescend to be made lowly as man and to offer himsel a sacrifice for the Redemption of men?

    Lenten Season is past for many months but perhaps we should continue to observe the great promise and meaning of these holy days throughout the Church year.

    WHY did Christ suffer and die for you and me? Because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin(Heb 9:22), and that sacrifice must be one without blemish or guilt. Jesus Christ is the one and only substitute who could qualify to be the atoning Lamb whose blood could redeem us. The ONLY one in all of time and eternity. And He was willing to make the uttermost sacrifice for sinful man.

    In verse 6 of this great Psalm describing the suffering of Christ on the cross, our Saviour makes a rather puzzling statement: "But I am a worm, and no man." As a child I used to ponder those words in disbelief. How could Jesus describe Himself so? A close study of the word 'worm' as used in this text will render a deeper appreciation for what our Saviour is relating. The Hebrew word for worm, used in this text, is TOLA'ATH. The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is 'crimson worm'. 

    The Crimson worm is common to the region of old Israel and was used in the dyeing of garments to scarlet. The natural characteristics and life cycle of this worm are noteworthy.

    When the Crimson worm is prepared to reproduce offspring (and she does so only once in her life) she rigidly attaches herself to a tree or a wooden fencepost in such a way that she can never be removed without tearing her body completely apart. And when her young ones arrive, they feed upon the LIVING body of the mother - a decidedly painful sacrifice. Then, when the young are able to survive apart from the mother, she dies. And as she dies, she exudes a scarlet dye which not only stains the tree, but her young ones as well. Thus they are colored by the mother's scarlet dye and remain so for the remainder of their lives. 

    How like the blood of Jesus, forever shed as a covering for us!

    The most important and critical question any of us can ask ourselves is, "Are we covered by the blood of Jesus? Are our doorposts and lintels stained with his redeeming blood(Exodus 12:22)? When others look upon us, do they see the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ?"

    How about you, my friends? Are you covered by the Blood?

PRAISE THE NAME OF JESUS!

- by Jerry Ogles

Logos of St Andrew - Spring 98

 

 DAILY READINGS IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST - J.R. Miller (1890)

July 1. The Touch of Faith

"And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?" Mark 5:30 

    How did he know that one touch — amid all the jostling of the crowd? The multitude were close about Him, pressing up against Him. The disciples even thought it strange that He should ask such a question. The people could not help touching Him. Ah — but there was one touch different from all the rest! There was a heart's cry in it — a piteous earnest supplication. It was not like the jostling of the crowd, an accidental or a thoughtless touch, the mere touch of nearness; there was a soul in it. So, amid all the crude pressure of the multitude, He recognized it.

    In every church service all are near to touching Christ — but all are not blessed. All press up against Christ — but some go away as they came, carrying with them sores unhealed, weakness unstrengthened, heart-hunger unfulfilled. Others, sitting close by, receive rich help. The first, though near, reach out no hand of faith, while the others touch the hem of Christ's garment.

    The services of the Church may be compared to telegraph wires through which messages are all the while passing. You may climb up and put your ear to the wire, or hold it in your hand; but you will not hear a word of all the important messages that are flashing through it. But let an operator come with his instrument and attach it, and he hears every word. So in the church services, we touch the invisible wires that bind Heaven and earth together. Along these wires messages are flying up from earth to Heaven, prayers, praises, heart-cries, faith filled desires; down from Heaven to earth answers of comfort, cheer, joy, and help, blessings of pardon, healing, life, peace. But many know nothing of all this, no flash of healing, new life, joy, or help comes to them; they are close — but have no faith attachment. The others touch by prayer and faith.

Mind of Christ