The Battle Hymn of the Republic

​In honor of the 250th anniversary of our country, the Ambler Choral Society, a non-profit community choir based in Ambler/Maple Glen, PA area, put on a concert last Sunday afternoon. Since my sister is a member of the choir, I got to attend the concert. It was filled with American folk and classic songs such as "Yankee Doodle," Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor," and "America." While they did magnificent renditions of these songs, we all agreed that the “piece de resistance” was their rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." It brought tears to many eyes.
 
The song was written by a woman abolitionist named Julia Ward Howe who lived through the horrors of the Civil War. While in Washington, D. C., Howe heard the Union troops singing "John Brown's Body." Unhappy with what she was hearing, she desired to write new lyrics for the melody. That she did! In her own words. Here is how it happened. "I awoke the next morning in the gray of the early dawn, and to my astonishment found that the wished for lines were arranging themselves in my brain. I lay quite still until the last verse had completed itself in my thoughts, then hastily arose saying to myself: 'I shall lose this if I don't write it down immediately.' I began to scrawl the lines almost without looking...Having completed this, I lay down again and fell asleep, but not before feeling that something of importance had happened to me."
 
The words that Julia penned appeared in the February,1862 issue of the Atlantic Monthly. Packed with Biblical imagery, her song spread quickly through the Union armies. We should note that, ironically, the tune that was used was written by a southerner named William Steffe. Howe's words angered the southerners as she was taking aim at the fight to end slavery. However, so many were inspired by her lyrics that they united in singing the new words to the old tune. The words to five stanzas of the hymn are below:
 
"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
 
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; they have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps. I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; His day is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
 
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat. O be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
 
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and Me. As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free! While God is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
 
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave. He is wisdom to the mighty; He is succor to the brave. All the world shall be His footstool and the soul of time His slave. Our God is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.”
 
The Word of God is the truth that keeps marching on. As we pick up the sword of truth, we can impact nations.