HYMN STORIES: The Songs We Sing
“Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus”
This week’s hymn is Stand Up, stand up for Jesus written George Duffield, Jr. (1818-1888) about a tragic accident that resulted in the early death of one of the most stirring preachers in the northeastern United States during the mid-nineteenth-century. Dudley Tyng (1825-1858), an inspiring Episcopalian preacher, was one of several ministers participating in a great citywide revival that swept Philadelphia in 1858. His strong preaching and his anti-slavery rhetoric were popular for some and angered others, resulting in his resignation from an Episcopal congregation that he pastored following the retirement of his father. In addition to serving the newly organized Church of the Covenant, his midday services at the YMCA attracted crowds as large as 5,000. On one occasion, March 30, 1858, 1000 men responded to the message by committing their lives to Christ.
During this sermon, Tyng is said to have declared, "I would rather that this right arm were amputated at the trunk than that I should come short of my duty to you in delivering God's message." Prophetically and tragically, within a few weeks while visiting the countryside, his arm was caught in the cogs of a corn thrasher and severely lacerated resulting in a great loss of blood and an infection that took his life a few days later. Either in his final sermon or on his deathbed, Tyng is to have said, "Let us stand up for Jesus." Another account states that the dying Tyng told his father, a retired Episcopal minister, "Stand up for Jesus, father, and tell my brethren of the ministry to stand up for Jesus."
Duffield, the son of a well-known Presbyterian minister, was educated at Yale University and Union Theological Seminary. He used his independent wealth, according to the Rev. Carlton Young, "to establish small congregations and to support evangelistic endeavors." Duffield was inspired by the funeral service for Tyng to preach on Ephesians 6:14 in his sermon the following Sunday at Temple Presbyterian Church, the text of which reads, "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness." (KJV) The hymn he wrote was sung at the conclusion of the sermon.
Hymnologist Kenneth W. Osbeck noted that Duffield's Sunday school superintendent was so impressed by the hymn that he shared it throughout the church's Sunday school classes. From there, the editor of a Baptist periodical received a copy and promoted it his publication, giving it wider circulation and making it available for publication in hymnals to this day.
While hymns like "Stand up, Stand up for Jesus" may have inspired revival and mission efforts in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, our rhetoric today needs to match the gospel of compassion and love that we seek to share in the twenty-first century. Let us claim the call to the spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6 and balance this with the God who came in Christ to love a lost and suffering world. up and sing proudly for the cross and all it stands for. Our new life in serving Christ and the promise of eternal life in heaven.
Shared by Lindrew Johnson, Director of Worship
