On Heroism and Bravery
And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me
to tellof Gidion, and of Barak, and of Samson,
and of Jephthae;of David also, and Samuel,
and of the prophets: Who throughfaith subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises,
stopped the mouths of lions. Quenched the violence
of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of
weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight,
turned to flight the armies of the aliens…. And others
had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings,
yea, moreover bonds and imprisonment:
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder,
were tempted, were slain with the sword:
they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins;
being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
(Of whom the world was not worthy)
they wandered in deserts, andin mountains,
and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all,
having obtained a good report through faith,
received not the promise: God having provided
some better thing for us, that they without us
should not be made perfect.
Hebrews 11
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
John Stuart Mill
Rise Up, O Men of God
Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and mind and soul and strength
To serve the King of Kings.
Rise up, O men of God!
The Kingdom tarries long.
Bring in the day of brotherhood
And end the night of wrong.
Rise up, O men of God!
The Church for you doth wait,
Her strength unequal to her task;
Rise up, and make her great!
Lift high the cross of Christ!
Tread where His have trod.
As Brothers of the Son of Man,
Rise up, O men of God!
A
Forth to the battle rides our King;
He climbs His conquering car;
He fits His arrows to the string,
and hurls His bolts afar.
Convictions pierce the stoutest hearts,
they smart, they bleed, they die;
Slain by Immanuel’s well-aimed darts,
in helpless heaps they lie.
Behold, He bares His two-edged sword,
and deals almighty blows;
His all-revealing, killing Word
’twixt joints and marrow goes.
Who can resist Him in the fight?
He cuts through coats of mail.
Before the terror of His might
the hearts of rebels fail.
Anon, arrayed in robes of grace,
he rides the trampled plain,
With pity beaming in His face,
and mercy in His train.
Mighty to save He now appears,
mighty to raise the dead,
Mighty to staunch the bleeding wound,
and lift the fallen head.
Victor alike in love and arms,
myriads around Him bend;
Each captive owns His matchless charms,
each foe becomes His friend.
They crown Him on the battle-field,
they press to kiss His feet;
Their hands, their hearts, their all they yield:
His conquest is complete.
None love Him more than those He slew;
His love their hate has slain;
Henceforth their souls are all on fire
to spread His gentle reign.
Charles H. Spurgeon
King Alfred’s War Song
When the enemy comes in a’roarin’ like a flood,
Coveting the kingdom and hungering for blood,
The Lord will raise a standard up
and lead His people on,
The Lord of Hosts will go before defeating every foe;
Defeating every foe.
For the Lord is our defense, Jesus defend us,
For the Lord is our defense, Jesu defend.
Some men trust in chariots, some trust in horse,
But we will depend upon the Name of Christ the Lord,
The Lord has made my hands to war
and my fingers to fight,
The Lord lays low our enemies,
but He raises us upright;
He raises us upright.
For the Lord is our defense, Jesus defend us,
For the Lord is our defense, Jesu defend.
A thousand fall on my left hand,
ten thousand to the right,
Be he will defend us from the arrow in the night,
Protect us from the terrors of the teeth of the devourer,
Embue us with your Spirit, Lord,
encompass us with power;
Encompass us with power.
For the Lord is our defense, Jesus defend us,
For the Lord is our defense, Jesu defend.
How Did You Die?
Did you tackle that trouble that came your way
With a resolute heart and cheerful?
Or hide your face from the light of day
With a craven soul and fearful?
Oh, a trouble’s a ton, or a trouble’s an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it,
And it isn’t the fact that you’re hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it?
You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what’s that?
Come up with a smiling face.
It’s nothing against you to fall down flat,
But to lie there-that’s disgrace.
The harder you’re thrown, why the higher you bounce;
Be proud of your blackened eye!
It isn’t the fact that you’re licked that counts,
It’s how did you fight—and why?
And though you be done to the death, what then?
If you battled the best you could,
If you played your part in the world of men,
Why, the Critic will call it good.
Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce,
And whether he’s slow or spry,
It isn’t the fact that you’re dead that counts,
But only how did you die?
Edmund Vance Cooke
Give Us Men
Give us Men!
Men-from every rack,
Fresh and free and frank;
Men of thought and reading,
Men of light and leading,
Men of loyal breeding,
The nation’s welfare speeding;
Men of faith and not of fiction,
Men of lofty aim in action;
Give us Men-O say again
Give us Men!
Give us Men!
Strong and stalwart ones;
Men whom purest honor fires,
Men who trample self beneath them,
Men who make their country wreathe them
As her noble sons,
Worthy of their sires;
Men who never shame their mothers,
Men who never fail their brothers,
True, however false are others:
Give us Men—I say again,
Give us Men!
Give us Men!
Men who, when tempest gathers,
Grasp the standard of their fathers
In the thickest fight;
Men who strike for home and alter,
Let the coward cringe and falter,
God defend the right!
True as truth the lorn and lonely,
Tender, as the brave are only;
Men who tread where saints have trod,
Men for country, home-and God:
Give us Men! I say again-again-
Give us Men!
Josiah Gilbert Holland
Once to Every Man and Nation
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth and falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision,
diff’ring each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever ’twixt that darkness and that light.
Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit,
and ’tis prosp’rous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.
Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
and upon the throne be wrong,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow keeping watch above His own.
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