Scripture Verse

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life. 1 Timothy 6:12

Introduction

Words: John S. B. Mon­sell, Hymns of Love and Praise for the Church’s Year 1863. This hymn was sung in the 1981 Aca­de­my Award win­ning mo­vie Char­i­ots of Fire.

Music: Pen­te­cost (Boyd) Will­iam Boyd, 1864 (🔊 pdf nwc). First pub­lished in Thir­ty-Two Hymn Tunes Com­posed by Mem­bers of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ox­ford, 1868.

Alternate Tunes:

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Boyd (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
John S. B. Monsell (1811–1875)

Baring-Gould asked me to com­pose a tune to Come Ho­ly Ghost, Our Souls In­spire, to be sung at a large meet­ing of York­shire col­liers. I walked, talked, slept and ate with the words, and at last evolved the tune which I na­tur­al­ly named Pen­te­cost…

One day, as I was walk­ing along Re­gent Street I felt a slap on my back, and turn­ing around saw my dear old friend Ar­thur Sul­li­van.

My dear Bil­ly, he said, I’ve seen a tune of yours which I must have. (He was then ed­it­ing Church Hymns) All right, I said, Send me a cheque and I agree. No co­py of the book, much less a proof was sent to me, and when I saw the tune I was hor­ri­fied to find that Sul­li­van had as­signed it to Fight the good fight!

We had a regular fis­ti­cuffs about it, but judg­ing from the fa­vour with which the tune has been re­ceived, I feel that Sul­li­van was right in so mat­ing words and mu­sic.

Musical Times (XLIX, 1908)

Lyrics

Fight the good fight with all thy might;
Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right;
Lay hold on life, and it shall be
Thy joy and crown eter­nal­ly.

Run the straight race through God’s good grace,
Lift up thine eyes, and seek His face;
Life with its way be­fore us lies,
Christ is the path, and Christ the prize.

Cast care aside, up­on thy guide,
Lean, and His mer­cy will pro­vide;
Lean, and the trust­ing soul shall prove
Christ is its life, and Christ its love.

Faint not nor fear, His arms are near,
He chang­eth not, and thou art dear.
Only be­lieve, and thou shalt see
That Christ is all in all to thee.