Scripture Verse

Who is on the Lord’s side? Exodus 32:26

Introduction

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Ada R. Gibbs
1864–1905

Words: Fran­ces R. Ha­ver­gal, Un­der the Su­rface (Lon­don: James Nis­bet, 1874), pag­es 109–11.

Music: San­ta Cla­ra Ada R. Gibbs (1864–1905) (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Frances R. Havergal (1836–1879)

Lyrics

Unfurl the Chris­tian stand­ard!
Lift it man­ful­ly on high,
And ral­ly where its shin­ing folds
Wave out against the sky!
Away with weak half-heart­ed­ness,
With faith­less­ness and fear!
Unfurl the Chris­tian stan­dard,
And fol­low with a cheer!

In God’s own name we set it up,
This ban­ner brave and bright,
Uplifted for the cause of Christ,
The cause of truth and right;
The cause that none can ov­er­throw,
The cause that must pre­vail,
Because the pr­omise of the Lord
Can ne­ver, ne­ver fail!

Now, who is on the Lord’s side, who?
Come, throng His bat­tle­field.
Be strong, and show that ye are men!
Come forth with sword and shield!
What peace, while trai­tor­ous evil
Stalks in false ar­ray of light?
What peace, while en­emies of Christ
Are ga­ther­ing for the fight?

Unfurl the Chris­tian stan­dard,
With firm and fear­less hands!
For no pale flag of com­pr­omise
With Er­ror’s le­gion bands,
And no faint heart­ed flag of truce
With Mis­chief and with Wrong,
Should lead the sol­diers of the Cross,
The faith­ful and the strong.

Unfurl the Chris­tian stan­dard,
And fol­low through the strife
The no­ble ar­my who have won
The mar­tyr’s crown of life;
Our an­ces­tors could die for truth,
Could brave the dead­ly glow,
And shall we let the stan­dard fall,
And yield it to the foe?

But if ye dare not hold it fast,
Yours on­ly is the loss,
For it shall be vic­to­ri­ous,
This Stan­dard of the Cross!
It shall not suf­fer, though ye rest
Beneath your shel­ter­ing trees,
And cast away the vic­tor’s crown
For love of ti­mid ease.

The Lord of Hosts, in whom alone
Our weak­ness shall be strong,
Shall lead us on to con­quest
With a mighty bat­tle song;
And soon the war­fare shall be past,
The glo­ri­ous tri­umph won,
The kingd­oms of the world shall be
The kingd­oms of His Son!