And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong. . .

For All The Saints remains one of my favorite hymns and the favorite throughout the English speaking world.  Its stanzas sing a progression through the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant.  It is eloquent and well-phrased and the tune is wedded to the text in ways that support both.  What more can I say?  Well, of course, there is more.

Sadly not all the stanzas are used.  Interestingly, the stanzas for the apostles, evangelists, and martyrs are generally omitted.  I wish I knew why and wish that we could restore them.  The eighth stanza (yes, there were originally 11 but most omit 3, 5, and 6 of the original) addresses the state of the world today and the place of Christendom within that world.  A 160 year old hymn still speaks to us today and to a Christendom still in need of its words and witness.  Maybe, just maybe, it will become our song again -- a song of victory!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,

Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,

And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

With reference to the fierce fight, the long warfare, the weariness of the soldiers, still comes the distant triumph song.  It can barely be heard with the ear -- stealing into our hearing like a thief who quietly enters to steal.  But this song is meant only to steal from us our faint hearts, our weary minds, and our tired bodies.  It steals what is worn and broken to make it new again.

And hearts are brave...  That is what is missing in the Church -- brave hearts.  I long for this.  Like so many, I long for brave hearted bishops and church leaders who are not captive to the fears of legal counsel or a threatening culture but who speak with courage and conviction the unchanging and eternal Gospel.  Is this not what we all seek and for which we hope?  A Church with leaders not cowered into submission by the warnings of government or the unpopularity of the cross in a secular society!  The brave hearts of leaders who encourage by example land and who inspire by their fearless words!  Where have they been in pandemic times?  In times when sexual desire and gender identity rule over everything?  In days when the Gospel is labeled hate speech?  In days when the culture wants only to hear the lie that everything you think and desire is well and good with God?

The bravest among us are not those who insist they are free to be themselves but those who use their freedom to be God's!  This is what the Church has missed and caused us all kinds of distress and upset.  We want leaders who will stand like the prophets and apostles of old, who will preach without fear the whole counsel of God's Word, and who will rally us to be steadfast and immovable in Christ.  We want a Church that does not live by the like meter on Facebook or the number of hits on a web page but by believing, preaching, and teaching the doctrines of the Scriptures without shame or embarrassment.  We want a Church willing to risk all to sing the sturdy hymns of old in a society in which music has become a business and entertainment instead of a medium for God's praise.

For All the Saints was written as a processional hymn by Anglican Bishop of Wakefield, William Walsham How. The hymn was first printed in Hymns for Saints' Days, and Other Hymns, by Earl Nelson, 1864. It was sung amid the deaths of plague and war, among terrorist's destruction and for the noblest of our fallen leaders.  It is still sung in parishes where the names of great people are remembered and where the anonymous saints are not forgotten.  It is time to sing this stanza again as a people who mean what we sing and who desire to inhabit those words.  And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.

We are not weak and we do not serve a weak God.  We are strong and the devils that fill the world and all their minions of evil cannot take from us what God has given.  Our God was there before anything and our God will bring us with Him into everlasting life where the troubles, trials, temptations, and twists of this mortal life will pass away from our memory leaving us occupied with eternal joy.  Marshal the sounds of the mighty organ and sound the brass for the people of God need to sing these words again and become the brave and strong again.  In times like these, we need nothing less!