‘Go Forward, Christian Soldier’

The hymn ‘Go forward, Christian soldier’ concludes Counsels of a Godfather (1819), written by the Revd Lawrence Tuttiett (sometime Rector of the Episcopal Church in St. Andrews, Scotland) to prepare his godchildren for Confirmation. This genre of catechetical preparation was once common amongst Anglicans as faithful godparents sought to fulfill the vows they made during the baptism of the godchildren. As Lent began as a season of final preparation for baptism, this Confirmation hymn also provides encouragement for Quadragesima. 

As the imperative – ‘Go forward, Christian soldier, / Beneath His banner true!’ – suggests, the hymn focuses on what follows after Confirmation. While Baptism gives life, Confirmation strengthens us for the fight anticipated by the baptismal liturgy. When the newly baptized child is marked with the sign of the cross, the minister explains that the sign is given ‘in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed … manfully to fight under [Christ’s] banner, against sin, the world, and the devil; and to continue Christ’s faithful soldier and servant unto his life’s end.’ In other words, baptism initiates one into a spiritual conflict and, indeed, places a target on one’s forehead! The training and equipment provided in learning the Catechism and the grace prayed for in Confirmation have this ongoing war in view. 

Jesus’ own baptism shows that conflict must needs follow. Immediately after he was baptized, ‘Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil’ (Matthew 4:1–11). The church calendar presents the same pattern: Epiphany (manifestation of God’s dearly beloved Son) leads to Lent, the church’s forty days of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. When the tempter challenged a starving Jesus to prove his divine sonship by turning stones to bread, the Lord’s reply showed he was already feasting on God’s Word. He did not fast for fasting’s sake. Musicians don’t practice scales for the sake of scales, but in order to partake in the pleasure of beautiful music. The unpleasantness of fasting wrenches the body’s attention upward to the richer feast ‘with joy and spiritual longing’, as Benedict of Nusia advised the religious to approach Lent. 

The hymn’s first stanza points to that feast: ‘He can with bread of Heaven / Thy fainting spirit feed’.  Tuttiett warned his godchildren of ‘treacherous voices’ and the allure of ‘peaceful rest’, of giving up rather than pressing forward ‘Till Christ Himself shall call thee / To lay thine armor by’. Jesus faced these temptations both in the wilderness and in Gethsemane, from the beginning of his ministry to its end. The devil hissed ‘Turn these stones to bread’ and ‘Cast yourself off the ledge!’ and so the serpent still whispers treacherously, ‘Doesn’t God love you? Won’t he save you?’ – indeed, he does and he will, but not on coercive terms. In contrast to selfish and self-defeating attempts to manipulate God, the hymn urges, by contrast, ‘Cease not to watch and pray’. Yet even Peter and the other apostles succumbed to slumber and denied Jesus. What hope is there, then, that we won’t err? 

In fact, we will err, drift off to sleep, and fearfully deny the Lord. The Catechism warns against relying on one’s own strength – one of the most treacherous of voices. ‘My good child’, it advises, ‘know this, that thou art not able to do these things of thyself, nor to walk in the Commandments of God, and to serve him, without his special grace; which thou must learn at all times to call for by diligent prayer’. The hymn reinforces this guidance, echoing the suffrages from daily morning and evening prayer: ‘The Lord Himself, thy Leader / Shall all thy foes subdue’. So the suffrage, ‘Because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only Thou, O Lord.’ 

When Jesus resisted, trusting in the Father’s might and turning to scripture to sustain him, the Adversary fled, and afterward, ‘angels came and ministered unto him’. Indeed, holy angels – messengers of light – had already been descending, lightening upon him as he answered the foe with scripture. The hymn reminds the frightened Christian Soldier, ‘Far more o’er thee are watching / Than human eyes can know,’ recalling the words Elisha spoke to his terrified servant when the Syrian host surrounded them: ‘Fear not, for they that are with us are more than they that are with them’. When the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, ‘behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha’ (2 Kings 6:16-17)! 

May all who ‘Go forward’ into this holy fast do so confident of such divine protection, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who has prevented his people in the wilderness and abundantly fed them there, so that there were twelve baskets left over. ‘He can with bread of Heaven / Thy fainting spirit feed’.