Battle Hymn of the Republic
A favorite classic hymn with roots in the American civil war. A liberal (for the day) woman wrote these stirring words about the second coming of Christ, using lots of imagery from Revelation. What a powerful and moving song! Hear the history, an analysis of the lyrics, and a performance of all 6 original verses on today's episode.
Welcome to Friday Classic Hymns, and I suppose today's hymn I should have kept for around the 4th of July because it's one of those American historical classics—it's The Battle Hymn of the Republic, or Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord. One of the most rousing songs I think I've ever heard.
I've spent many years travelling around here from church to church in South Africa, singing with my band, and we've often sung this song. Without exception, when you get to the chorus of this song, everybody starts singing and usually lifting their hands. There's something powerful about singing Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, Our God Is Marching On. It's just a great rousing tune with wonderful words.
I wonder what the song means to you. Do you have any memories of singing it? Does it mean something particular to you? I hope you'll share those in the comments below so that we can share in your joy. By the way, if you love old hymns or if you just love music that draws you nearer to God, I hope you'll consider subscribing to the channel and hitting the little bell so you get notified of my new videos. I do these classic hymns, and I do Encounters on a Sunday, which is a time of singing and prayer. I hope you'll join me and be blessed by what I offer here on YouTube.
The Story Behind "Battle Hymn of the Republic"
The song was written by a woman named Julia Ward Howe. She was born in New York in the 1800s and grew up in a strong Christian home. She married a man named Dr Samuel Howe, who was well known for his humanitarian efforts in the country. She became quite liberal as well. Now, the word liberal doesn't mean what it does today—in those days, liberals were known for abolishing the slave trade. That's what they wanted to do, and they were staunch Christians, as you can see in her words. Very hard Christian stuff, but just with more of a humanitarian outlook.
She was also a leader of the suffragette movement. She did a great deal of reform work in prisons, and more than that, she was an excellent poet. She released three volumes of poetry in the 1850s and '60s.
It was in 1862, during the Civil War in America, that the song was published. You see, the tune to the song was an American standard—nobody really knew where it came from, but people would sing strange things to this tune. One day, Julia, her husband, their pastor, and also the Governor of Massachusetts were standing or going somewhere (there are different accounts of whether they were settled somewhere or walking around). Past them came a whole bunch of troops, and they were singing this tune. To this tune, they were singing the words: John Brown's Body Lies a-Mouldering in the Grave. John Brown was one of the abolitionists who wanted to get rid of slavery, and he was hanged for his efforts towards this. They were singing this morbid thing.
It is said that their pastor, who was there with them, turned to Julia and said, "Well, that's a very catchy tune, it's a very rousing tune. Why don't you write something better to those words?"
Julia herself said this years later about what happened next:
"I awoke in the grey of the morning, and as I lay waiting for dawn, the long lines of the desired poem began to entwine themselves in my mind. I said to myself, I must get up and write these verses lest I fall asleep and forget them. So I sprang out of bed, and in the dimness found an old stump of a pen which I remembered using the day before. I scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper."
The poem was published, and she received a grand total of five dollars for her work—crazy! But soon the word began to spread. The song began to be sung instead of all those strange words about John Brown's body, and soon Americans everywhere knew these words to this tune. It kind of set the nation on fire.
In fact, there's a story that I read in one of these books that I use for research about a man who was captured by the Confederates and put into prison. He sat there in prison, and one day somebody burst through the door and said there had been a big defeat of all the Union soldiers. He sat there weeping at the defeat that he had heard of. But then somebody else burst in a short time later and said, "That's fake news, that's false. The Union soldiers actually won." He jumped up in joy and started to sing Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord. He'd read the poem that Howe published in a magazine, and he committed all those words to memory. In his joy, he jumped up and started to sing it. When he got to that chorus, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, all the prisoners started singing with him.
Now, a few years later, he was speaking—the same man—at a rally somewhere, and President Lincoln was there. He told the story and then he sang the song. When he finished, Lincoln stood up, and with tears in his eyes, asked this man to sing it again. He was so moved by the story and by the words of the song.
Julia Howe died in her 90s, but she was given an honorary law doctorate a few days before she died because of all the great work that she did in the country. This is a great song that she wrote. Man, this is as rousing as it gets, I think, but the words are actually quite heavy. The words are actually very heavy, and we sing it kind of with a smile on our faces because the tune is rousing, but wow—these are quite heavy words.
What Do the Lyrics of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" Mean?
Verse 1: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory
Verse one is that famous verse: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
The coming of the Lord, of course, makes us think of Jesus' second coming, and the imagery in this verse makes us think of Revelation because she says:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
What on earth does that mean? I have sung this for years and never really stopped to think about this strange image. But it does—it comes out of Revelation. In particular, there's a verse in Revelation 19 which talks about Jesus treading on the wine press of God's fury or His wrath.
It's a picture of judgement. It's a picture of God coming back and crushing the grapes, so to speak, with blood flowing everywhere—terrifying stuff. On the other hand, some people believe that this picture of the wine press and the grapes is a picture of Jesus as both the one trampling on the grapes and the grapes themselves. Jesus is the grapes themselves, because in a sense, it's His own crushing—Himself on the cross, shedding His own blood willingly. There are these two different ways of looking at the wine press and the grapes of wrath. I wonder which one makes sense to you.
But since the other images in this verse come from that Revelation passage, perhaps that's what she was talking about. She was seeing in the Civil War Jesus' judgement on this nation and the blood that was being spilled as His wrath over this nation's sin—heavy stuff.
The verse goes on to say:
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword.
Again, Revelation 19—Jesus comes back with a sword in His mouth by which He judges the nations.
Then it says:
His truth is marching on.
The sword is often linked with His truth—the Word of God being that which convicts people.
It's pretty heavy stuff. I mean, again, we sing this very jovially almost, but this is a terrifying image of Jesus coming back and pronouncing judgement on the world. That shouldn't, I suppose, make us smile—that should make us pretty sombre.
Verse 2: I Have Seen Him in the Watch-fires
The second verse is also pretty intense:
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.
She's picturing all these soldiers who are fighting, worshipping at an altar and proclaiming the good news, the Gospel of Jesus, in the work they're doing in this war—pretty intense.
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; His day is marching on.
Again, she's picturing Jesus' sentence being read out on the sin of the nation.
Verse 3: I Have Read a Fiery Gospel
Verse three is also intense:
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel.
Fiery—so not weak, but fiery and passionate, writ in burnished rows of steel—strong and unyielding. It is a fiery Gospel that is the truth.
Then there's this interesting line which is very powerful:
As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal.
A contemner is somebody who has contempt. God's contemners are those who are against Him. Here she's saying that she's hearing God say: as you deal with those who have contempt for Me, I will deal with you. In other words, are you giving grace to them? Are you giving kindness and gentleness to them? Because I'm going to deal with you the way you deal with them.
Maybe this has some sort of link to her abolitionist tendencies. She was saying, the way you deal with these people is the way I'm going to deal with you. That's how God treats the situation. Treat people well; don't treat them without dignity and respect, or God is going to treat you the way you treated them—heavy stuff.
She goes on:
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel.
You can see the capital H—Jesus, God and man. That's another great biblical image of Jesus finally crushing Satan with His heel. Again, there's this whole end-times type of imagery that she's bringing up. Jesus is going to win this battle and crush the serpent.
She ends by saying:
Since God is marching on.
God is marching on—He's going forward, you can't stop Him. Wow, this is fiery stuff.
Verse 4: He Has Sounded Forth the Trumpet
The next verse is one that I remember singing—these last two I don't remember ever singing; they're not published as much in hymnals as these next two.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat.
The trumpet sound of Jesus coming again—there's that end-times imagery once more—and it shall never call retreat. We're not going to go back; once Jesus has come, that's going to be it.
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgement-seat.
Oh, that's a great line. He's sifting out the true followers from those who aren't true followers. He's looking at your hearts—the ones who truly have followed and worshipped Him and whose lives match will be sifted out from those who haven't and separated. Reminds me of Jesus talking about the sheep and goats, and all sorts of other words of Jesus about differentiating between the real believers and the ones who've just been pretending.
Then she says:
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him.
Be swift—don't delay. It reminds me of Softly and Tenderly, which I did last week on Friday Classic Hymns, where there is a sense of urgency with the writer saying "come home, come home while there is time." You know, the end is coming, so don't delay. She's saying the same type of thing here: be swift, be swift, don't leave this, but answer Him and go to Him so that you may be saved.
Then I like how she says:
Be jubilant, my feet!
Be jubilant, my feet—have you ever thought of your feet as jubilant? I have never thought of that, but I suppose, saved by Jesus, we are jubilant and we dance for joy because of the place that we have with Him.
Our God is marching on.
Our God is marching on—He is still going.
Verse 5: In the Beauty of the Lilies
The next verse is also one that I've sung many times:
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea.
The beauty of the lilies—now some scholars talk about how the land of Israel in spring is kind of lush and beautiful, and so that might be what the lilies are referring to. Others see how in the Old Testament the lilies were used in the temple to adorn and make beautiful, and that's kind of foreshadowing the beauty of Christ. I suppose those might work either way. The point is that Christ was born across the sea.
The next line says:
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
How is she talking about the power that Jesus has to transform us on earth into new creations who are shaped by grace and live holy lives? Or is she talking about the final transfiguration that we will go through on the other side of the grave? Either way, Jesus is the one who transforms us, and it's His Spirit that is the one who does the transforming work.
Then she has a controversial line because she says:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.
A lot of you are going to say, "Oh no, we've always sung 'let us live to make men free.'" That was changed. Her original line says, "let us die to make men free." As He died, let us die—if that's what it takes to make men free.
If we need to die in giving our lives for the Gospel, then we'll do that. That's a really powerful way to look at it, but isn't that what God calls us to do? Isn't that what the disciples themselves did? They gave their lives to be used by God so that more people could learn of the freedom that He offers.
What are you doing to give up your life, to take up your cross, so to speak, so that God's Word can affect people and so that God's freedom can be found by others? How quickly we back away from words like this and rather don't give ourselves up and stick to what's comfortable. Every time I sing this, it convicts me: am I dying to myself so that others may find Christ?
While God is marching on.
It is that same theme of God marching on at the end of every verse.
Verse 6: He Is Coming Like the Glory
The last verse again was one that I didn't know, and apparently this wasn't part of the original publication, but later on she wrote this and added it on:
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave.
I suppose the wave of the clouds—He's coming.
He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is honour to the brave.
Again, exciting words for the troops who were trying to do what they were doing for God. Even for us today, we may not be fighting in a physical war, but in spiritual warfare terms, He's the one who gives us wisdom and honour as we seek to live our lives.
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave.
Our God is marching on. The world shall be His footstool—another biblical image of the footstool, you know, Jesus reigning over everything—and the soul of Time His slave. That's an interesting line: even time itself is subject to God.
Our God is marching on.
The Chorus: Glory, Glory, Hallelujah
The chorus is the one that everybody loves to sing:
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
The second line in the original was actually three glories, but we still sing two these days—only Glory, Glory, Hallelujah. In the last line of the chorus, it actually changes. At first it says:
His truth is marching on
for the first three choruses, but then it changes for the second three choruses to say:
Our God is marching on.
I didn't know this until I was looking at the lyrics here. We used to always just sing Our God Is Marching On, so that's quite a cool way to do it.
Conclusion
Man, that is intense stuff. That is a very popular hymn that has all this end-times imagery, and maybe it's a wake-up call to us today. Jesus is coming back—are we going to be ready? You know, He often said to His disciples, "Keep watch, keep watch, be alert. Will the Son of Man find faith on earth when He returns?" He said. Hearing a song like this, it should remind us we need to be ready, because it could be any moment that He comes back, and our time could come any moment too. Let's be ready, let's be faithful to His calling, and let's keep singing Glory, Glory and living lives that match up what we sing.
References
Kenneth W. Osbeck. 101 Hymn Stories. 1982. Kregal Publications: Grand Rapids
John McLelland. The Ambassador Book of Great Hymn Stories. 1994. Ambassador Productions Ltd: Belfast
