Hymn Story, The Church's One Foundation, part 4: The Church at Rest— Peace Forevermore

The past two decades have seen the disappearance of hymn books in many churches. As digital images have replaced paper texts, we have lost and we have gained. One of the things we have gained is the ability to escape the decisions made by hymnbook editors. When Samuel Stone first published this hymn in Lyra Fidelium (1866), he included seven verses. Two years later, when it was included in Hymns Ancient and Modern, it was compressed to five verses; and by the time it made it into the 20th century it was usually down to four. (I remember church services from my childhood when even four verses were deemed too long and it was pruned again!) Moving from books to screens has made it easy to reintroduce some of the verses that have fallen out of the hymnals.

As I worked through the textual history of this hymn I had to decide which verses to include. Ultimately I decided to cover six of Stone's original seven verses. The editors of Hymns Ancient and Modern had deleted his third verse and compressed his sixth and seventh verses into one. Stone accepted this five-verse rendition and came to recognize it as the “official" version. But other hymnals chose verses from it like a smörgåsbord, so over the years almost all of his original hymn has been used; only the excised halves of his original last two verses have been completely forgotten.

The theme of last week’s article was the church in her time of struggle. Jesus told his disciples that in this world they would face tribulation, and that has proven to be the case. The church has always had outsiders who would love to see her devoured and digested, with every steeple and cross removed from memory. And since the days of Alexander and Hymenaeus, wolves have continually risen up from within her. The pressure has been so great at times that there is no human explanation for her continued existence. The vast majority of Christians have lived out their faith under conditions like those expressed by Paul— “we were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life itself.” (2 Cor. 1:8, NIV)

America has existed as an unusual bubble of religious freedom for several centuries, but since that is all that most Americans have known it has felt normal. (Even in these centuries of relative peace there were strains and splits, doctrinal drifts and heresies.) By all appearances this bubble is being squeezed and is ready to burst. This new and uncomfortable atmosphere has put us in a position where the topics of trial and combat catch our hearts in ways they never did before.

I have never been in the armed services but am very thankful for those that have served. I have, however, read enough books and spoken to enough veterans to know the camaraderie that exists between men who have been in combat together. Most relationships are strengthened and deepened in the midst of trials. Since military combat is one of the greatest shared trials that humans can endure, it should not be surprising that some of the longest and deepest bonds are formed on the battlefield. William Shakespeare captured this sentiment when King Henry spoke of the “band of brothers" who fought at his side on St. Crispin's Day, and this is the mood that Stone portrays in the final two verses of his hymn.

verse 5.

The church is faced with “toil, tribulation, and tumult of war." This is summarized in the concept of the church militant. Those of us still here on earth are in the midst of the conflict, at war with the devil, with the sin that remains in us, and with the sinful thinking and atmosphere of this world. The fight is tiring—sometimes we put down our swords and run, and other times we are foolishly lulled into sleeping through the fight that rages around us.

But it will not always be this way. One by one, as believers finish their tour of duty, they depart to be with Christ. They go to a true home they've never known before, they hang up their swords, lay down their shields, and enter into rest. Every Christian who has served out his time of enlistment in this way has become part of the church triumphant.

verse 6.

As Stone reminded us earlier in his hymn, there are not two churches, only one. This means that the church militant and the church triumphant are not separate armies but one united force. It just so happened that some were drafted into the King's service earlier than others. While we cannot see or speak with them, there is a deep spiritual bond between us. Other hymnwriters made this point as well—

• “Oh, that with yonder sacred throng we at his feet may fall.”
  (All Hail the Power, Edward Perronet, 1780)

• “For all the saints, who from their labors rest”
  (For All the Saints, William Walsham How, 1864)

• “Here they trusted him before us, now their praises fill the sky.”
  (Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder, John Newton, 1779)

• “the whole triumphant host give thanks to God on high”
  (The God of Abraham Praise, Thomas Olivers, 1770)

Through constant reminders of the church triumphant and its active worship of God, the church militant is reminded of its sure and certain hope. We are reminded that those whose bodies were buried even a thousand years ago have not ceased to exist or become temporarily inactive. And we are reminded of the many, many brothers and sisters who are waiting for us to join them.

God calls us to live by faith, yet we all know how feeble that faith tends to be. We are so prone to act upon what we see with our eyes rather than what we see with our faith. We live in an anti-supernatural world. The worldwide culture of our day blasts its loudspeaker incessantly: there is no God, there is no spirit world, there is no heaven, there is no hell. We need every resource we can muster to strengthen our faith in the reality of things that cannot be seen, and frequent reminders of the church triumphant play a crucial part in the health of our daily lives.

Samuel Stone himself became part of the church triumphant in 1900. For 121 years he has been a part of that cloud of witnesses described in Hebrews. I trust that these four articles on him and his hymn have helped you forward on the path and that you’ll sing with more understanding next time you have the chance. And please, don’t skimp on the verses—they only cost 45 seconds apiece.