March 7, 2018
Luther League Hymn
O Christians, leagued together to battle for the right, arise and don your armor, put the foe to flight!
We’ve given our allegiance to serve without surcease the mighty Lord of armies and gentle Prince of Peace.
Refrain: All hail, our glorious Saviour! We march where thou hast trod,
to seek thy house of triumph, the city of our God.
Then ‘onward’ be the war-cry; and onward still, so long as we have self to conquer, souls to cheer with song,
let sound the martial music, ring out the bugle call to rally for the conflict our people one and all. (Refrain)
We proudly bear as banner a cross within the heart, to show that we have chosen Christ, the better part.
Then joy and peace and comfort shall blossom as a rose, until our earthly blessings the worth of heaven disclose. (Refrain)
It seems most of my favorite hymns evoke memories of childhood. This one brings visions of music, games, and food in the church basement on Sunday evenings; hay rack rides with a tractor rather than horses pulling the rack; regional meetings where we made friendships that got renewed when we re-discovered these same people at college; and a synod Luther League convention at Midland College in Midland, Nebraska.
All the Lutheran churches that I knew about had a Luther League. It was a church-sponsored club open to all junior and senior high school students who wished to attend. In actuality it was mostly Lutheran, but sometimes students our age from other denominations also took part. We did good works, mostly suggested by the pastor, or assisted in church-wide activities such as helping to wrangle the smaller children for the annual Christmas Eve pageant or Bible School in the summer.
Mostly we were a social club with religious trappings—most songs were hymns; food intake, meeting openings and closings were always done with prayer; and fun was had by all. It was probably a lot like today’s Youth Quake meetings, church camp, and other youth activities.
We became better acquainted with fellow church members who went to country school before high school and often couldn’t take part in after school activities because of family obligations such as agricultural chores. Mainly, we cemented our feelings about how Christians should act, how often we should go to church, and what we should do to keep the church viable in our lives.
The song itself is sung with dignity [as directed in the hymnal – the 1958 copyrighted edition] and at a pace more rapid than most hymns. It encourages loud and boisterous participation. It emphasizes also that being a Christian is a daily activity not only a Sunday one. I have always been fond of the third verse with the description of the cross within the heart within the rose. We have seen that symbol more frequently of late with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. In honor of the Reformation, I thought it was time to remind us of this hymn and to introduce it to others.
May you carry the cross within your heart and experience the joy, peace, and comfort it promises.
Jolene Dougherty
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