Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-09-06
STAND UP, STAND UP FOR JESUS.

STAND UP, STAND UP FOR JESUS"
Very few hymns have had so strik-
ing an origin as this. It's author, Rev.
George Dufield, D. D., was pastor in
Philadelphia during the great revival
Of 1858, which centered about the
monday prayer meetings in Jayne's
nall. The meetings were under the
charge Of the Young MeL's Christian
Association and some clergymen who
had Joined with them. Among these
were Dudley A. Tying, rector of the
Church of the Epiphany, who was real
ly the leader, and DR.. Dufield.
The two clergymen were warm
friends, and DR.. Dufield thought Mr..
Tying " the manifest, bravest man" he
knew. One Sunday Mr.. Tying preached
to a great throng in Jayne's hall, and
it is thought that not less than LOCO
we're then and there converted 10
Christ. On the following Wednesday
Nh. Tying, leaving his study for a mo-
ment, went to the barn floor, where
a mule was at work on a horsepower
machine Smelling corn. AS he patLed
the animal 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 q
fewhours" When dying he sent
message TO his friends who had charge
Of the MONDAY meeting: Tell them
to stand up for Jesus!" adding, Now
let us sing a hymn"
With his feelings deeply stirred by
his friends tragic death, DR.. Duffeld
wrought the dying message into these
verses, and used them as a concluding
exhOrtatiOn to the sermon he preached
the following Sunday. The superln-
tendent Of his Sunday school, Benedict
D. Stewart, had them printed on a fly
leaf; they were copied by religious pa
pers; they appeared in the Sabbath
hymn book (COngregationaD that
same year, and in the supplement to
the Church Psalmist (Presbyterian) in
the next year. The hymn became a
favorite of the soldiers during the civil
war and is now sung in churches aud
Sunday schools all over the land and
III many foreign countries.
DR.. Duffield. to the end Of his life,
kept an ear of corn from that thrash
Ing floor hanging on the wall Of his
study in remembrance of Mr.. Tying
The hymn itself seems to echo his
voice: Stand up for Jesus! Now let
US sing a hymn"
In the ministry Of the American
Presbyterian church there have been
three distinguished men named George
Dufield q796106S). One was asuccess-
full pastoral Carlisle, Philadelphia, New
York and other places, and an able
theOiOgian His son, the third George
Duffeld, was the author of this hymn.
He was born at Carlisle in 1918, grad
uated from Yale college in 1887, and
from Union Theological seminary in
1910. In the same year he was mar
ried, ordained and installed pastor of
the Fifth Presbyterian church in
Brooklyn. 1t was as pastor and preach
er. rather than as scholar or man of
After leaving Brooklyn he was pas
tor Of the First church Of Bloomfield,
n. j., and then of the Central church
Of the North Liberties, Philadelphia.
AtterWard he was pastor at Adrian and
Saginaw City, Mich, and at Galesburg,
Ill His active service covered more
than 40 years. DR.. Dufield's last years
were lived in Bloomfield with his son,
Rev. Samuel w. DufieId, then pastor
there. The son, himself poet, always
recalled with pride that his hand had
made the first flair copy" of his faith
er's hymn for the press, and those who
saw father and son together at Bloom
field still speak Of the reverence and
love with which that same hand sup
ported the fathers failing steps. But
the son was first called, and the father
followed On July 6, 1888.
DR.. Duffeld himself was a good SOL
der Of Jesus Christ. He served SO well
and so long that at first thought it
seems strange, even unjust, that he
should now be remembered principally
as the author Of hymn. But, after all,
such hymn is the flower Of mans
life, and holds the best he was and
had. 1t is quite possible, too, that DR..
Dufield's hymn is the crown Of his
labors for Christ He helped hundreds
while he lived. but how many thous-
ands have been encouraged and i'll
spired by his brave song!-Louis T.
Benson. d. D.. in Forward.