It was normalcy on Highway 80 (Yes, sir) that led state troopers to use tear gas and horses and billy clubs against unarmed human beings who were simply marching for justice. of His terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on – – We live in a time that does not usually appreciate these fearsome images of God. Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Hallelujah! They told us we wouldn’t get here. Eventually, he would be elected to the House of Representatives from Atlanta, serving in Congress for more than three decades. I do think it’s amazing that as the USA has become fairly irreligious, we still sing this song. In the 1960s, for the first time in United States history, young people stood at the cutting edge of American radicalism. His truth is marching on. HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ONJohn Lewis and the Power of HopeBy Jon Meacham. ‘I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; ⁠They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps; ⁠I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps: ⁠ His day is marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah! He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: Glory, glory, hallelujah! (Yes, sir), My people, my people, listen. HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON ... (1940-2020), one of the civil rights movement's most prominent leaders. God may not have been with the Union, but I certainly hope he was against the Confederacy. But since it was at the very beginning of the war, she had no idea how it would develop, how long it would last, nor what the outcome would be. Glory, glory, hallelujah! So what I see is that in spite of changes in leadership and organizations through the years, God has provided a clear path and continuity of instruction to facilitate my journey of conversion that began over 43 years ago, and thanks to a faithful ministry at this time, the truth is still marching on… and I am still being inspired to make changes in my life! CHORUS: What you are saying is true.”. The melody is used as the theme for the Japanese electronics chain, Claghorn, Charles Eugene, "Battle Hymn: The Story Behind, Clifford, Deborah Pickman. Glory, glory, hallelujah! We are on the move now. Tell it), Up to the walls of Jericho they marched, spear in hand. The Bible says that a series of trumpet blasts will precede the second coming of Christ (Zephaniah 1:14-16; Matthew 24:30-31; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52), to signal the start of a great battle (cf. We sang The Battle Hymn just today in church and, though I have also sung it on several other occasions, this time I found myself wanting to know more about its historical significance. March) until brotherhood becomes more than a meaningless word in an opening prayer, but the order of the day on every legislative agenda. It’s as if the Lord himself were writing it! And here is crushing of an even more climactic kind. [28] The title of John Updike's In the Beauty of the Lilies also came from this song, as did Terrible Swift Sword and Never Call Retreat, two volumes in Bruce Catton's Centennial History of the Civil War. Now it is not an accident that one of the great marches of American history should terminate in Montgomery, Alabama. His removal, Meacham writes, devastated Lewis. (Yes, sir), How long? (Speak, sir) It was normalcy by a cafe in Selma, Alabama, that led to the brutal beating of Reverend James Reeb. I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel: “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” originated during the Civil War. Perhaps inevitably, Lewis’s conduct was less saintly once he became a politician. Reply. (Chorus) is a miraculous thing . Glory, glory, hallelujah! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword His truth is marching on. (Speak) It was normalcy in Birmingham (Yes) that led to the murder on Sunday morning of four beautiful, unoffending, innocent girls. The burning of our churches will not deter us. Glory! With the high praises of God in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people to bind theIr kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute the judgment written. The sixth verse written by Howe, which is less commonly sung, was not published at that time. “Respond to God’s call . Speak) [Applause]. The battle is in our hands. . Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. The tune and variants of these words spread across both the southern and northern United States.[3]. “His Truth Is Marching On is well worth reading, especially for readers with an abiding interest in the intersection of religion and progressive politics . They were friends and he would grieve when Dr. King was assassinated, and when Robert F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, President Kennedy, and so many others who died in some measure because they believed in the simple statement, “That all men are created equal.” That blacks should be able to sit at a lunch counter and be served, that blacks should be allowed to vote without worrying about getting their heads beat in, that segregation in the schools, transportation, and housing was wrong, dead wrong. contact@eternalgod.org. Staying at the Willard Hotel in Washington on the night of November 18, 1861, Howe wrote the verses to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic. His truth is marching on. I agree. At 19 he took part in his first sit-in. (Yes, sir) The beating and killing of our clergymen and young people will not divert us. While God is marching on. Our God is marching on. Hallelujah! Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Our whole campaign in Alabama has been centered around the right to vote. Here are just a few examples: In this stanza, Howe writes that Christ was in the watch-fires of the Union military camps, and more than that, that the camps they set up pleased him—they were altars of worship, erected in his name. Yes, sir) to turn the whole nation to a new course. They saturated the thinking of the poor white masses with it, (Yes) thus clouding their minds to the real issue involved in the Populist Movement. (Yes, sir) The Bible tells us that the mighty men of Joshua merely walked about the walled city of Jericho (Yes) and the barriers to freedom came tumbling down. GOD HAS A MESSAGE FOR US ALL IN THESE LYRICS. Be jubilant my feet! The phrase "His truth is marching on" has given me courage to fight my mortal enemy who is trying to destroy me and rob me of all that is good in my life. Their service to the Church and their care and concern for God’s people was sincere. Glory, glory, hallelujah! (Yes, sir), Thus, the threat of the free exercise of the ballot by the Negro and the white masses alike (Uh huh) resulted in the establishment of a segregated society. Let’s take a look at how this message plays out in each stanza. (That’s right). Some songs make use of both the melody and elements of the lyrics of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", either in tribute or as a parody: Other songs simply use the melody, i.e. Some have literally slept in the mud. I do not necessarily connect the meaning of the lyrics to Civil War and the Killings but to the second coming of Christ. The American public has always had a mistrust of its politicians…. And there were those who said that we would get here only over their dead bodies, (Well. ( Log Out /  And as the noted historian, C. Vann Woodward, in his book, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, clearly points out, the segregation of the races was really a political stratagem employed by the emerging Bourbon interests in the South to keep the southern masses divided and southern labor the cheapest in the land. Get people to hear Jesus in Revelation . I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”, The other prophets, too, used the winepress metaphor. His truth is marching on. Some of our faces are burned from the outpourings of the sweltering sun. Compared with Meacham’s earlier works, this book, published only a few months after his most recent one, gives the impression of having been written in haste. Glory, glory, hallelujah! Somebody’s asking, "When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely night, (Speak, speak, speak) plucked from weary souls with chains of fear and the manacles of death? For a full account of Lewis’s life, we must await the biography being written by the Rutgers historian David Greenberg, to which Meacham graciously directs readers. The. is a good thing. Kimball's battalion was dispatched to Murray, Kentucky, early in the Civil War, and Julia Ward Howe heard this song during a public review of the troops outside Washington, D.C., on Upton Hill, Virginia. (Yes, sir), "‘Cause the battle am in my hand." Probably. Rather, as a poet, she would have been using the Nothern/Southern/Slavery situation as an analogy for Christ’s Second Coming and what will happen. Transfiguration. Slaves were brought to America by the Northern states of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island. In 1965 he suffered a fractured skull at the hands of the Alabama state police, who violently dispersed voting rights marchers at Selma in an event soon memorialized as Bloody Sunday. With that view this song is beautiful. (Chorus) In the first known version, "Canaan's Happy Shore," the text includes the verse "Oh! Jimmy Carter once remarked, “If you want to understand the civil rights movement, remember this: Martin Luther King didn’t integrate the South. . Words like “trampling,” “wrath,” “lightning,” and “sword” are not friendly words, but they are biblical descriptors of who Jesus is or will be. "John Brown's Body" has more syllables in its verse and uses a more rhythmically active variation of the "Canaan" melody to accommodate the additional words in the verse. [46], American patriotic song written by Julia Ward Howe, Cover of the 1863 sheet music for the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", performed by, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", Modern Jazz arrangement arranged by Eric Richards, performed by.