A Needed "Call To Arms" From the Hymnbook!

In a day when so many battles center around the causes of a weak & ineffective church, our hymnbook is a clear reminder that it was not always so. Many selections grew out of the realization that our battles in this world are NOT theoretical. Oh, that our eyes would be opened today. The pressures are growing, and unless and until the Church catches on, we will fail to enlist the greatest power in the universe--God via prayer!

Rise up, O men of God! Have done with lesser things;

give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of kings.

Rise up, O men of God! His kingdom tarries long;

bring in the day of brotherhood and end the night of wrong.

Rise up, O men of God! The Church for you doth wait,

her strength unequal to her task; rise up, and make her great!

Lift hight the cross of Christ! Tread where his feet have trod;

as brothers of the Son of Man, rise up, O men of God.

--William P. Merrill, 1911