Manly’s Choice, Manly felt it was absolutely necessary to include this section. “Many of the texts were invitational in nature and dealt with ‘Death’ and ‘The Judgment’ in
particular. They were designed to call sinners to commitment.”107 Manly recognized the closing of worship must result in action on the part of the believer. Knowledge alone is insufficient; knowledge with a call to action is the essence of the Gospel message. To close the hymn, Manly yearned for believers to be left with a picture of eternity. The final
my soul, thou Saviour dear,” Hy. 221 in Manly’s Choice, 140–41; Thomas Ken, “Awake, my soul, and with the sun,” Hy. 215 in Manly’s Choice, 138; Ken, “Glory to thee, my God, this night,” Hy. 220 in Manly’s Choice, 140; H. F. Lyte, “Abide with me! fast falls the eventide,” Hy. 226 in Manly’s Choice, 143; Anne Steele, “God of my life, my morning song.” Hy. 218 in Manly’s Choice, 139; Isaac Watts, “My God, how endless is thy love!,” Hy. 216 in Manly’s Choice, 138; Watts, “Once more, my soul, the rising day,” Hy. 217 in Manly’s Choice, 139; and Watts, “Thus far the Lord hath led me on,” Hy. 222 in Manly’s Choice, 141. Platt noted many of these hymns have continued to be a part of twentieth century Southern Baptist hymn collections.
105Unknown, “How the shades of night are gone,” Hy. 219 in Manly’s Choice, 140–41.
106John A. Broadus, “President John A. Broadus on Dr. Manly’s Last Work,” Religious Herald (February 1891): 1. Broadus also mentioned his appreciation for the low cost and design of the hymnal, quoted by Platt, “Hymnological Contributions,” 122.
107Platt, “Hymnological Contributions,” 122.
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mixture of hymns “was intended to direct the focus of all worshipers to the ultimate realities of ‘Time and Eternity.’ Earthly worship should be understood as merely an introduction to the eternal worship that will commence with ‘The Resurrection.’”108 Thus, the editor arranged the largest selection of hymns in this final section to draw the Christians attention to heaven.
Other Manly Hymns
In addition to the hymns found in the Baptist Psalmody and Baptist Chorals, Manly had “also written twenty or thirty additional hymns,” some of which “found their way into various collections.”109 He also consulted or served as an advisor on several hymnals. The most notable were The Little Sunday School Hymn Book (1863), The Confederate Sunday School Hymn Book (1863), and The Baptist Hymnal for Use in Church and Home (1883). Other hymnals featured his texts or tunes including Glad Refrain: New Hymns and Tunes for Sunday-Schools (1867), Kind Words (1863–1970), The Baptist Hymn and Tune Book for Public Worship (1871), Charles Spurgeon’s Our Own Hymn Book (1866), and The Baptist Praise Book for Congregational Singing (1872).
“Come All Who Feel Your Sins a Load”
As mentioned above, Manly was one of a few Southerners asked to consult and contribute hymns to other Baptists hymnals. One of those hymnals, The Baptist Praise
108Platt, “Hymnological Contributions,” 122.
109Burrage, Baptist Hymn Writers, 425. Among his personal papers, there are several manuscripts containing both notes and texts for hymns and accompanying tunes.
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Book contained “God with us! Oh, wondrous name!”110 He also submitted the following text—“Come all who feel your sins a load”—to the editorial board for a hymn he found inadequate.111 Nevertheless, his familiarity with the Puritan Richard Sibbes (1577–1635) was evident in this hymn when he mirrored imagery used by Sibbes in his famous work The Bruised Reed.112 For those hammered by sin and its destruction—bruised reeds—
they should take flight to Christ whose burden was light, yoke easy, heart gentle and lowly, and rest for the soul complete.113
Come all who feel your sins a load, Pour your complaints before your God;
He is the Sinner’s Friend indeed, He will not break the bruised reed.
A meek and lowly Saviour see, His love is vast, his grace his free;
To him your guilt and burden take, The bruised reed he will not break.
Wounded for love of us was he, And bruised for our iniquity:
To heal our souls, behold him bleed!
He will not break, the bruised reed.
Come, weak and wounded, sick and sore.
His strength receive, his grace adore;
His promised firm can never shake, The bruised reed he’ll never break.
110See above p.140n26.
111Basil Manly Jr., “Come all who feel your sins a load,” extant in letter to Smith &
McDougal, August 3, 1871, Manly Papers—Southern, quoted in Platt, “Hymnological Contributions,” 240 and Richardson, “Southern Baptist Pioneer in Hymnody,” 26. The editorial board decided to reprint Manly’s “Holy, holy, holy Lord.”
112Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed rev. ed. (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2005).
That he was familiar with Sibbes is not explicitly mentioned in Manly’s works; however, Manly’s notes during his collegiate years testify to his extensive reading plan of many other Puritans including Richard Baxter (1615–1691), John Bunyan (1628–1688), Phillip Doddridge, John Owen (1616–1638), and Robert Traill (1642–1716).
113Matt 11:25–30.
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Interpreting Isaiah 42:3 in the same way as the author of the Gospel of Matthew, Manly firmly posited Jesus was the suffering servant of God proclaimed by the prophet.
Christ was God’s servant in the greatest piece of service that ever was, a chosen and a choice servant who did and suffered all by commission from the Father. In this we may see the sweet love of God to us, in that he counts the work of our salvation by Christ his greatest service, and in that he will put his only beloved Son to that service.114
With this in mind, Manly emphasized, in the first two stanzas, the weakness of man as a result of sin and how Christ, as God’s chosen servant, approaches penitent sinners—as a redeemer and friend. Turning the attention of the worshiper to Isaiah 53:5, the worshiper was again reminded of God’s love in sending Jesus to the cross. Instead of humanity receiving a just punishment, it was Jesus who was “wounded for love . . . [a]nd bruised for our iniquity. As such, the promise of God to not “break . . . the bruised reed” could be trusted.
Having communicated the grace and mercy of God in the first three stanzas, the final verse was an urgent plea to embrace the gospel that heals all spiritual ailments.
Opening the last verse with a phrase from Joseph Hart’s “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy,” Manly hoped the comforting words of the hymn would “allure those that are not yet in a state of grace to come under Christ’s sweet and victorious government, for, though we shall have much opposition, yet, if we strive, he will help us. If we fail, he will cherish us. If we are guided by him, we shall overcome. If we overcome, we are sure to be crowned.”115
114Sibbes, The Bruised Reed, 1–2.
115Sibbes, The Bruised Reed, 125. Hart’s hymn was included in The Baptist Psalmody.
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“Work, For the Day is Coming”
Even with several hymns to his name, Manly is most known for two hymns with similar emphases. Perhaps what is most unique about these two hymns is that both can still be heard today. Among his many notes, Manly left the text for “Work, for the day is coming,” a hymn which he wrote in early 1884 to encourage Southern Baptists to take up the work of the Sunday school.116 Ironically, the text never appeared in a
Southern Baptist collection. However, according to one historian, the text has become Manly’s most widely published appearing in ten other hymnals and Sunday school song books.117 In an obvious takeoff of young Anna Coghill’s (1836–1907) poetic reflection on John 9:4, “The Night Cometh,” Manly changed the words to rally Southern Baptists to engage in the Gospel-centered work of Sunday school.
Work, for the day is coming, Day in the word foretold,
When, mid the scenes triumphant, Longed for by saints of old, He, who on earth, a stranger Traversed the paths of pain, Jesus, the Prince, the Saviour, Comes evermore to reign.
Work, for the day is coming:
Darkness will soon be gone;
Then o’er the night of weeping Day without end shall dawn;
What now we sow in sadness, Then we shall reap in joy:
Hope will be changed to gladness, Praise be our best employ.
Work, for the Lord is coming;
116Manly Jr., “Work, for the day is coming,” Hy. 6, reprinted in Robert Lowry and W. Howard Doane, eds., The Glad Refrain for Sunday School (Chicago: Bigalow & Main, 1886), 10.
117Richardson, “Southern Baptist Pioneer in Hymnody,” 26.
176 Children of light we are;
From Jesus’ bright appearing Powers of darkness flee;
Now morning light is breaking, Day dawns in every land;
Night shades beset no longer, For Christ is now at hand.118
Why do Christians work? The work of those redeemed by God is motivated by the knowledge of Christ’s eventual return. Our work ends upon His return; His light
completely covers the earth, which once and for all removes darkness from every hiding place. Until then, we spread the light of the Gospel to every place under the rule of “night shades . . . [F]or Christ is now at hand.” But, until that day, gospel labors press forward
“for the Lord is coming.”
Manly was convinced the Sunday school was the best means of salvation for children and adults. As one of his co-laborers articulated, the goal of the hymn was “to interest the children of the Sunday school in the missionary cause.”119 In fact, the text was a response to an earnest question.
Someone said, one of those Sunday afternoons, ‘Dr. Manly, why do you work so hard? There is no danger of the night coming and finding you with your life task unfinished.’ His answer could have never been forgotten by those who heard it! But let us be thankful in response to an earnest request, the spirit of what he said, has been embodied and immortalized in the words of his glorious hymn.120
118Anna Coghill, “Work, for the night is coming,” NetHymnal,
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/w/o/workfort.htm [accessed June 22, 2014]. Coghill was only eighteen when she wrote the poem; hymnologist and composer Ira D. Sankey (1840–1908) later added the music to complete the hymn. Oddly, it was Coghill’s lyrics that appeared as a selection under “Zeal and Energy for Service” in Manly’s Choice rather than his own work. In The Choice, he composed a musical selection for Coghill’s text entitled Work.
119L. H. Woodbury, “‘Work for the Day is Coming’—how it was written” (unpublished ms., Basil Manly Papers, January 20, 1884), 1.
120Woodbury, “‘Work for the Day is Coming’,” 2–3.
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Thus, this hymn can be understood as a personal narrative for Manly’s indefatigable efforts in establishing the Sunday school movement in Baptist churches, training and educating the next generation of ministers of the gospel, providing well-intentioned worship texts and songs for the church, and fighting for the proper place of the Bible in the life of the individual, church, denomination, and nation.
The Seminary Hymn:
“Soldiers of Christ, in Truth Arrayed”
Manly’s most well known hymn, which is sung at least four times a year in Louisville, Kentucky, was written for the first commencement services of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1860.121 That hymn, “Soldiers of Christ in truth
arrayed,” was a charge for the graduates of the seminary to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness even though it may cost an earthly life. Haykin rightly noted the use of martial imagery in the hymn—a style often used by Manly in hymns, sermons,
academic lectures, personal letters, and other speeches.122 Given the point in history when Manly penned the hymn, martial imagery is understandable. In less than a year, Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) would be elected president, South Carolina, along with ten other states, would secede from the United States forming the Confederate States of America, and Confederate troops would fire upon and seize control of Union forces at Fort Sumter in Charleston. Even so, Manly’s exposure to martial imagery went back to his days under
121Manly Jr., “Soldiers of Christ in truth arrayed,” Hy. 709, in The Baptist Psalmody, 440. As others have noted (Richardson, Platt, Haykin, Wills), the original text was found in Southern’s first commencement program in 1860 without attribution. The hymn is sung at both commencement and convocation services held at the beginning and end of each semester. The hymn is also sung at the annual gathering of Southern Seminary alumni at the Southern Baptist Convention.
122Haykin, “Soldiers of Christ,” 46–51.
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the teaching of Charles Hodge at Princeton Seminary. At one of the Sunday afternoon sessions held at the seminary, Hodge discussed the responsibilities of ministers as
“soldiers of Christ” from 2 Tim. 2:4.123
The soldier’s life is the hardest life in the world. It involves more labor, more privation, more exposure, more exertion of the faculties, i.e., in watchfulness and in combat, than any other vocation. . . . It therefore requires great strength of mind or body, according to the nature of the warfare, i.e., strength of purpose, great patience, great activity and diligence, entire devotedness, freedom from other cares, and consecration to his work.124
Perhaps the conversation had been so imprinted on Manly’s mind he felt compelled to compose with courage and boldness for he knew the work of a minister was “an arduous one, calling for the exertion of all their powers. They have many enemies to overcome, within and without.”125
Soldiers of Christ, in truth arrayed, A world in ruins needs your aid:
A world by sin destroyed and dead;
A world for which the Savior bled.
Forth to the realms of darkness go, Where, like a river’s ceaseless flow, A tide of souls is drifting down, Blasted beneath th’ Almighty’s frown.
No human skill nor power can stay That flood upon its gloomy way;
But God’s own love devised the plan To save the ruined creature, man.126
123Charles Hodge, Conference Papers or Analyses of Discourses, Doctrinal and Practical;
Delivered on Sabbath Afternoons to the Students of the Theological Seminary, N. J. (Eugene, OR: Wipf &
Stock Publishers, 2004), 319.
124Hodge, Conference Papers, 319.
125Hodge, Conference Papers, 319.
126Stanzas 2 and 3 have not been retained in recent Southern Baptist hymnals. Haykin noted the stanzas were dropped intentionally, but not without approval, after Manly left the seminary in 1871 for the presidency of Georgetown College. So Haykin, Duke, and Fuller, Soldiers of Christ, 50–54.
179 His gospel to the lost proclaim,
Good news for all in Jesus’ name;
Let light upon the darkness break
That sinners from their death may wake.
Morning and evening sow the seed, God’s grace the effort shall succeed.
Seedtimes of tears have oft been found With sheaves of joy and plenty crowned.
We meet to part, but part to meet When earthly labors are complete, To join in yet more blest employ, In an eternal world of joy.
Just as a soldier is equipped for the battle with appropriate weaponry, gear, and training, the minister of the gospel is equipped with the truth and knowledge of the person and work of Christ to enter into a ruined and destroyed world. The soldier of Christ, armed with the Word of God, would not only battle against his own sin but also against “error, disregard for the truth, ignorance, vice in all its forms, malice and detraction, and Satan and his emissaries.”127
Once launched into battle, the soldier of Christ would immediately be called to
“realms of darkness.” Unlike others, the soldier of Christ has a duty of passive obedience to the Lord. “He is not the judge where he is to go, or what he is to do. He has nothing to do, but to go where he is ordered, and to do what he is required.”128 When engaged, the minister would be exposed to a battle for which only God has the power to win.
Fortunately, for the minister, it is Christ’s redemptive work planned before the creation of the world that has already won the war. Having been sent to “realms of darkness,” the
127Hodge, Conference Papers, 319.
128Hodge, Conference Papers, 320.
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message of the Gospel shattered the darkness by the power of its light. Recalling God’s creative word “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3–4), the good news of Jesus reversed
immediately the curses pronounced by God upon Adam and Eve. Thus, the minister of Christ
should be animated by a spirit of loyalty . . . to his sovereign . . . loyalty to Christ, zeal for his glory, love for his person, the desire to establish and extend his kingdom . . . . It is the overwhelming sense of the glory of Christ, and of our obligations to him, which can alone either qualify a man for this work, or sustain him under it.129
In language similar to “Work, for the day is coming,” the last two stanzas were welcome words of encouragement to the tired but faithful minister. While the difficult and emotional work of preaching the gospel never ends, the results are the work of God.
Thus, with “God’s grace the effort shall succeed.” Like a soldier in battle, his
responsibility was the faithful discharge of duties: “It is only the general who is held responsible for results. So the minister, like the private soldier, is not responsible.”130 This was an essential quality for the work of the ministry. As Jesus told his disciples that the harvest was plentiful but laborers few (Matt 9:37, Luke 10:2), more important for Manly was the need for good and faithful soldiers not the potential results. Manly maintained,
Eighteen hundred years have elapsed, and the plenteous harvest waves before us still. Thousands of laborers have done their work and rested from their toil, but the harvest has been continually widening, and increasing, and ripening; nor have all the sickles, that were thrust in, been sufficient. To this day, the cry is reechoed with mournfully increased earnestness, from every portion of the Christian Church, and from every benighted region of the heathen world—‘The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.’. . . One thing is certain; such ministers as the cause demands—laborers, not idlers—and laborers sent forth by the Lord of the harvest,
129Hodge, Conference Papers, 320.
130Hodge, Conference Papers, 320.
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not busybodies, answering without a call, and running without a message—such laborers are the fruit of prayer.131
A common theme for Manly, the hymn was a call to vigorous evangelistic effort. The preaching of the gospel was a relentless effort requiring tireless commitment and
dedication to Christ to sow the seed day and night. A few years later, at the restart of the seminary after the war, Manly pressed this issue with men studying for the ministry.
Energy of character is an important prerequisite. The duties of the ministry are such that an indolent man will find abundant temptations, and plausible excuses, while he will be not merely useless, but positively hurtful. A sluggish body can be driven to work, a sluggish mind rarely, a sluggish heart never. There is a force of character, a habit of persisting, a power to influence and kindle others, a capacity to inspire confidence and general esteem, which, whatever name may be given to it, is essential to success. . . .
There is another qualification, however, on which the question mainly turns; it is an ardent and self-denying desire to labor for the good of souls. This is not a natural quality. It must be implanted by the Holy Spirit, and become an abiding, decided and effective habit of the soul.132
The final two lines of the fourth stanza comforted steadfast ministers with good news—
they would experience joy at seeing their efforts upon entrance into the kingdom of God with “plenty crowned.” The soldier of Christ would receive “a crown of glory, a crown of righteousness . . . and that crown is given only to the faithful.”133 Even as they gathered together for short periods of revival and refreshment, they would soon depart for extended labors. Yet, recalling their time together, ministers surged forward knowing they would gather again in the heavenly realm to worship the one, true living God and rejoice forever over all God’s redeemed.
131Basil Manly Jr., A Call To The Ministry. The Introductory Lecture Before The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Greenville, S. C. (Greenville, SC: G. E. Elford’s Job Press, 1866), 15–16.
132Manly Jr., A Call To The Ministry, 9–10.
133Hodge, Conference Papers, 320.