It is a chill and crisp Fall morning here in Northeast Indiana. I love days like this. Soon there will be frost on the pumpkin, as they say, and I love that as well. Then there will be snow in the air, and that is where the love affair ends. It isn't the cold, but the ice that comes along with it. I am at that point in life where slipping and falling is not funny. But for now, I will gladly take a crisp and clear morning.

    This particular blog has nothing to do with the weather. I just wanted to share a little pleasure of mine. What we are actually going to look at a particular song writer. Honestly, I am not so interested in what a song says to me. I am more interested in what the song said to the one who wrote it. Or more to the point, what they were thinking when they wrote a particular song. I am going to stick with church type music. I don't particularly care what the thought process was behind "Hey Jude." 

    William F. Sherwin was born in 1826 in Buckland, Massachusetts and grew up there, moving to New York as a young adult. He was more interested in learning music than playing the games the children played at the time. Though not well educated in a traditional sense, he was self taught in music. Particularly sacred music. The sacred music of the day had its roots in England four and five hundred years earlier. Sunday Schools were coming into being in the 1840s and 50s, and Sherwin felt the need to write catchy little songs for this new ministry. Sunday Schools originally developed as a way of teaching children the Bible. As such, they needed something more than the style of church their parents enjoyed (or endured) and catchy little songs were a part of that effort. Not surprisingly, many of the old guard did not like the separation of children from their parents and they did not like the non-majestic songs the children were being taught. But Sunday School was catching on. William was uniquely gifted in this form of music.

    And then came the Civil War. Thirty four years old and suffering from various ailments, the not so young New Yorker was not eligible for service. But he visited the convalescence hospitals and offered music and wrote letters for men too wounded to be able to write. What he saw deeply troubled him. However, it also inspired him. He heard stories of heroism, and he also talked with some who had let cowardice take hold and who were terribly ashamed of their actions. William carried the Good News of Christ to each one he talked to and offered prayers when a wounded soldier would allow such.

    Still, he wrote the catchy little songs he was known for, Sunday School songs for little children. But the suffering and pain of the soldiers stayed with him. Then, one day at one of the hospitals, he heard several soldiers singing one of the songs he had written for Sunday School. He saw the men all enjoyed the music and he realized people preferred pleasant music with movement to the old, clunky church music. He wasn't a hymn writer, but perhaps he should give it a try. There was that blind lady, Fanny Crosby, and the young Philip Bliss, who wrote for D.L. Moody, the up and coming evangelist. This was a new style of music, freer and more buoyant. Of course he could write that music!

    But, in the end, he was a writer of Sunday School songs for children. He was maybe the best ever at that form, but that style of songs did not age well. As Sunday School became more and more integrated into church life, the 'Opening Assembly,' where such songs were given, has gone away. Sherwin filled a niche for a time, but he wanted to tell the Gospel in a more permanent way.

    Perhaps he was trying too hard. Perhaps it wasn't what the Lord had for him. Perhaps he was destined to slip into obscurity, never to be heard from again.

    Except......

    Four years after the war he was still visiting convalescence homes. Soldiers who would never get their lives back. To badly injured to be much good, at least in their minds. Most of these men were from the same regiment. That was how it was done. Each community had raised a regiment or two (or three or four) and they had marched off to war together. William noticed that occasionally their former commander would come to see his men. When word came that their colonel was in the building, they would straighten their clothes and come as close to attention as they could. The colonel would go around to each man and speak to him, and that soldier would do the best he could do to be military. William was moved by this, and he came to understand that although these men were injured or disfigured or mentally affected, there was a pride in what they had done and there was pride in who they had followed into battle. When Sherwin went home, he took a quill and paper and put together the song for which he will always be remembered.

1.   Sound the battle cry! See, the foe is nigh;
Raise the standard high for the Lord;
Gird your armor on, stand firm every one;
Rest your cause upon His holy Word.

o   Refrain:
Rouse, then, soldiers, rally round the banner,
Ready, steady, pass the word along;
Onward, forward, shout aloud, “Hosanna!”
Christ is Captain of the mighty throng.

2.   Strong to meet the foe, marching on we go,
While our cause we know must prevail;
Shield and banner bright, gleaming in the light,
Battling for the right we ne’er can fail.

3.   O Thou God of all, hear us when we call,
Help us one and all by Thy grace;
When the battle’s done, and the vict’ry’s won,

May we wear the crown before Thy face.