The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-19

feel an .exquisiite thrill as. thes pluned, Masons march, 20 abreast, singing the great battle hymn of the. church., 1T.
 Written in 1865, it never has lost. its hold on the hearts of men battling for. ideals, So great and universal is 1ts appeal that it belongs to no sect no race; it has become the. heritage of civilization, rather than exclusively the rallying cry of the Christian church. sssse"'s - s '-.ss '.-ss..is'' " '-' t' The hymn was fortnhate .ip gfindinf a composer like Sir Arthur Sullivan. to express its spirit in nusic.
 The late James Huneker of the New York World staff, insan article that appeared in the New York Herald in
 The hymn wss fortunhfe in finding nineteenth century that. bid fair to outlast the drums and trumplings' of modern church music. One is Cardinal Newman's 'Lead Kindly Light .(1S33), the other, Onward, Christian Soldiers " the Rev.. Sabine ~ Barring Gould ] (1S65). But between the plangency, and sweetness of, Newman's inspired lines and Barring Gould $ martial call of the cross lies the vast field of dis similar tempefaments, of the mystic church and the church militant. And Onward, Christian Soldiers brings us back to the question t"What consti- tutes the quality that makes for pop ularity in hymn!'
 Simplicity, the simplicity that comes from profound faith, could alone have given birth to those stanzas. Not, great poetry? True. But convincing because of the fusion of intense eonvic- ton and happy diction. They. were written at white heat. ssl''9 <. @e, 33.l. ! |
 ''The most popular music setting of Onward, Christian Soldiers and one is tempted to say the best,G is. that by the late Sir Arthur Sullivan. And the little hymn dashed off with all the fa- cility of the born improvisatore has outstayed the popularity of the operet- tas.~It will be sung as .ong as what Matthew Arnold calls morality touched by emotion prevails.
 "0f vaster import in both musical and poetic sense is Fin Feste Burg 1st Unser Gott,' for Luther, who wrote the German hymn (after the Psalm xvi, Deus Noster Refugium), and Johann Sebastian Bach set it to immortal tones in his cantata. (The opening is fugue based rpoff Luther's melody and set to the first verse of tine hymn.) This hymn, ,thunders at-the very gates of Heaven in its magnificent affirmation of belief. But one doubts if it is oftener on the lips of the people than the little processional 'hurriedly penned by feryent eurate. The verse of Onward, Christian Soldiers is not great poetry, not the kind of poetry xhut lies imprisoned in Newman's Lead Kindlys Ligbts' sFet&ft gets =sihder the skin of the plain people. It is rhyth- mic. It is suggestive. M ~ ! Tt is replete with the1ardor of bat ties. And words and music combined make for righteousness as do few com, positions of q sacred character"
 .'"Orward, Christian Soldiers" was written on Whit Monday in a York shire village, where young Barring Gould was then curate, as a marching song for band of school children and with no thought of Eublica tion. He has told the story himself
 Il wanted the children to. sing when marching from one village to the oth- CT, but could not think of anything quite suitable, so I set up at night resolved to write something myself. Onward. Christian Soldiers was the result. It was written sifr great haste, and I am afraid that some of the lines are faulty. Certainly nothing has Surprised me more than it's great pop uIarity." r % t 's,.
 When the young curate wrote the words to swing his marching children
 Brightly Cleans Oura Banner" Sev along, they sang them to the tune of eral musical settings have been given them at various times, but Sullivan's is the one eyerybody ,knews--the one with the thrill in it. NBaring Gould also was a novelist 0nd historian Ha+ xynrIdf boya hAav, 90 years old had he lived until Jan uary 2S. He was one of the few sur vfving examples of the genuine Eng fish squire, living on the estate where his family had lived for almost three centuries. E 9s SAlthough born to wealth, Barring Gould chose instead of the luxurious life of west country squire the more laborious existence of missioner am0ng the Yorkshire mill hands.
 &Hs fell in love with a mill girl while he was curate, and educated the littl. factory girl at York, an article ,iubllshed several months ago in The Slar related. She later became his wif> ..--', .vr.,.a> ,,- @.In 1872, upon the death of his fa- ther, he inherited the family estate at Lew Trenchard. On this estate of threh thousand acres Barring Gould lived until 1881, when he presented himself to the rectory.
 FScme years ago theseFector's son, spea ling of his fathers introduction tO tile world as an author, said: f"1Ae book my father thought the best, and the only one he said he en- i6yee writing was Richard Cable He enjoyed the religious and antiquarian, and not novel writfng.A :. His novels paid exceedingly we'll He generally wrote history for his own pleasure Snd a novel for the pleasure of his pnrsy.
 H"Ite wrote the: hymn, Onward, Chri4tian Soldiers At the time he ,siis curate of small church. He had inter ted to use it as "a processi0nal hym,. but the bishop would not per nit It. ,s 't.ez ? s.....
 "1his bishop was low church, and my father was high chprch. and the bishop opposed the sign of the cross that was to be used. My father told him that it was pretty late to change the hymn now, or to write new one, hut If he insisted on it, he would de the best he could. We'll, the bishop