Seasoned Veracity

Onward, Christian Soldiers

One hundred and two years ago, on May 22, 1910, as part of the festivities of the World Sunday School Convention  in Washington, DC, it was arranged for "Onward, Christian Soldiers" to be sung around the world. Translators had worked for months to render the words into a hundred languages. Children in churches and on mission fields marched through the streets singing the song, and it became a worldwide hymn.

While some today are uncomfortable  with the martial imagery of the song, the lyrics express a Biblical focus on carrying out the mission of God and achieving spiritual victory over Satan and his destructive works.

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,/With the cross of Jesus going on before.

Christ, the royal Master, leads aginst the foe;/Forward into battle see His banners go!

At the sign of triumph Satan's host doth flee;/On then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!

Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise;/Brothers lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.

Like a mighty army moves the church of God;/Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.

We are not divided, all one body we,/One in hope and doctrine, one in charity.

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,/With the cross of Jesus going on before.

 

 

Our Bodies Matter

In this article relating the immorality of first-century Corinth to conditions in contemporary culture, the Kairos Journal presents timely and timeless wisdom from the Apostle Paul on how and why Christians are to live chaste and moral lives.

The Legacy of Livingstone

From 1840 until his death in 1873, David Livingstone traveled the length and breadth of Central Africa, penetrating and mapping its interior, preaching the gospel to tribesmen who had never been reached before, healing the sick, and showing the natives how to irrigate their fields and improve their agriculture. He explored over 11,000 miles of unknown country and was the first white man to cross Africa from west to east.

During his many and varied journeys he recorded his observations of the geology, botany, and wildlife of the regions he visited, and most important of all, he discovered and exposed the dreadful cruelties of the Arab-dominated slave trade. As well as freeing slaves whenever he could, Livingstone’s published diaries and reports persuaded Britain to take action against the slave-trafficking Sultan of Zanzibar in the 1870s—though Livingstone himself did not live to see it.

Perhaps his most telling legacy, however, is the untarnished memory of himself left in the minds and hearts of generations of ordinary Africans. Many towns, streets, and buildings were named after him, and although decolonization led to many name changes in Africa, most of those named after Livingstone have remained. Generations of missionaries and evangelists, white and black, have followed in his footsteps.

    -- from the Kairos Journal

Saint Francis and the Sultan

In 1219, in the midst of the Fifth Crusade, Saint Francis of Assisi crossed unarmed into the enemy camp in order to preach the gospel to Sultan al-Kamil, the Muslim ruler of Egypt. In his hagiographic account of this incident, Bonaventure relates the following:

"When [Francis and his companion] proceeded farther, the Saracen sentries fell upon them like wolves swiftly overtaking sheep, savagely seized the servants of God and cruelly and contemptuously dragged them away, insulting them, beating them and putting them in chains…When that ruler inquired by whom, why and how they had been sent and how they got there, Francis, Christ’s servant, answered with an intrepid heart that he had been sent not by man but by the Most High God in order to point out to him and his people the way of salvation and to announce the Gospel of truth."

Contrary to the excessively tender image of him propounded by Hollywood and supported by popular piety, Francis was a knight of Christ and a seasoned soldier with crusade combat experience before his conversion. On this, his third attempt at converting the Muslims, he once again knew that his life was at stake, and he was prepared to sacrifice it. According to Bonaventure and earlier biographers, the sultan was so overwhelmed by Francis’s courage that he invited him to stay longer. Francis said he was not interested in the sultan’s favors, but only in his conversion.

This story is an eloquent testimony to the inspired boldness of the Christian saints. It also provides a stirring example of integrity in the face of an offered bribe, this time in the form of compromising hospitality.

-- from Kairos Journal