THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 285
much persecuted in those pro-slavery days for his persistent course in pleading the cause of the oppressed, it was thought that these words had a peculiar significance in his mind ; as if he had said, "Stand up for Jesus in the person of the down trodden slave (Luke v. 18). "
Dr. Duffield describes Mr. Tyng as one of the noblest, bravest, manliest men he ever met. The Sabbath before his death he preached, in the immense edifice known as Jayncs Hall, one of the most successful sermons of modern times. Of the five thousand men there assembled, at least one thousand, it is believed, were slain of the Lord. His text was Exod. x. 11, and hence the allusion in the second verse of the hymn. The following Wednesday, leaving his study for a moment, he went to the barn floor, where a mule was at work on a horse-power, shelling corn. Patting him on the neck, the sleeve of his silk study gown caught in the cogs of the wheel, and his arm was torn out by the roots ! His death occurred in a few hours. Never was there greater lamentation over a young man than over him, and when Gen. 1. 26 was announced as the text for his funeral sermon, the place at once became a Bochim, and continued so for many minutes.
Dr. Duffield continues, The following Sunday the author of the hymn preached from Eph. vi. 14, and the above verses were written simply as the concluding exhortation. The super intendent of the Sunday school had a fly-leaf printed for the children ; a stray copy found its way into a Baptist newspaper ; and from that paper it has gone, in English, in German, and in Latin translations, all over the world. The first time the author heard it sung outside of his own denomination was in 1864, as the favourite song of the Christian soldiers in the army of the James.
Hymn 463. Who is on the Lord s side? F. R. HAVERGAL (330).
Home Missions, October 13, 1877 ; published in Loyal Responses ; 1878, headed On the Lord s side. Based on I Chron. xii. 18. The second verse is omitted
Not for weight of glory,
Not for crown and palm, Enter we the army,
Raise the warrior-psalm.
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