The pure celestial fire to impart,
Kindle a flame of sacred love
On the mean altar of my heart!
There let it for Thy glory burn,
With inextinguishable blaze,
And trembling to its source return,
In humble love and fervent praise.’”
One of the hymns which stirs our spirits for valiant endeavor is
“Onward, Christian Soldiers”
The Rev. S. Baring Gould was the author of one hundred and forty books, showing versatility of genius in these works of religion, fiction, folklore, mythology, travel, biography, art. Many of these writings will doubtless be forgotten when a hymn which he improvised and wrote in great haste, as a marching song for a band of schoolchildren in his parish, will continue to be remembered. About this hymn, “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” the author once wrote, “Certainly nothing has surprised me more than its great popularity.”