193. Stand up, stand up for Jesus
George Duffield, Jr., 1818-88
A hymn of the Christian warfare, widely known, and found in nearly all English hymn books. The origin of it is best given in the author’s own words in a leaflet printed in Detroit, 1883, and quoted by his son, Samuel Duffield, in English Hymns, 1886:
“Stand up for Jesus” was the dying message of the Rev. Dudley A. Tyng, to the Young Men’s Christian Association, and the ministers associated with them in the Noon-Day Prayer Meeting, during the great revival of 1858, usually known as “The Work of God in Philadelphia.”
A very dear personal friend, I knew young Tyng as one of the noblest, bravest, manliest men I ever met; not inferior in eloquence to his honored father, and the acknowledged leader of a campaign for Christ that has become historical. The Sabbath before his death he preached in the immense edifice known as Jaynes’ Hall, one of the most successful sermons of modern times. Of the five thousand men there assembled, at least one thousand, it was believed, were “the slain of the Lord.” His text was Exodus 10:11, and hence the allusion in the third verse of the hymn.
The following Wednesday, leaving his study for a moment, he went to the barn floor, where a mule was at work on a horse-power, shelling corn. Patting him on the neck, the sleeve of his silk study gown caught in the cogs of the wheel, and his arm was torn out by the roots! His death occurred in a few hours. Never was there greater lamentation over a young man than over him, and when Gen. 50:26 was announced as the text for his funeral sermon, the place at once became a Bochim, and continued so for many minutes.
The following Sunday the author of the hymn preached from Eph. 6:14, and the above verses were written simply as the concluding exhortation. The superintendent of the Sabbath-school had a fly-leaf printed for the children—a stray copy found its way into a Baptist newspaper—and from that paper it has gone in English, and in German and Latin translations all over the world. The first time the author heard it sung outside of his own denomination, was in 1864, as the favorite song of the Christian soldiers in the Army of the James.
... George Duffield
Detroit, May 29, 1883.
George Duffield, Jr., 1818-88, son of Rev. George Duffield, was educated at Yale and Union Theological Seminary for the Presbyterian ministry and held pastorates in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Galesburg, Ill., Adrian and Lansing, Michigan. His son, Samuel W. Duffield, was the author of English Hymns.
MUSIC. WEBB. For comments on this tune see [Hymn 65].
194. God’s trumpet wakes the slumb’ring world
Samuel Longfellow, 1819-92
A stirring call to a loyal stand for truth and witness against wrong. The hymn first appeared in Hymns of the Spirit, 1864.
For comments on Samuel Longfellow see [Hymn 28].