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Let the reader, with deep meditation, consider the following words in the light of their watch-fires tonight... that they may be encouraged by this great hymn's refrain to KEEP MEN FREE... I endeavor to expound on this marvelous inspired work, in my commentary at the end of its lyrics.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps,
His day is marching on.

I have read His fiery gospel writ in rows of burnished steel!
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you My grace shall deal!
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,"
Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free!
While God is marching on.

How often have I sat and listened silently to the refrain of this glorious Hymn... soon the cadence and its refrain take on form, to live in me.  Often, I am caught up in the struggle against my flesh, and the not so hidden war for my spirit rages... as does the tempest of this glorious hymn. Then, arises the question, from campfires long grown cold: Is the spirit of those camps found in the righteous today... Has my brother laid bare his soul and with steel charged the Serpent's den... breached his breastworks... there to strike down his kingdom, with God's righteous sword... Where are the righteous whose watch-fires blaze with the fierce and powerful word of God... whose lightning stretches across our lands to make men free...  Is His Truth marching on in the hearts and souls of our generation or did we so ignorantly trade His Sword and birth right for a bowl of porridge?

Can one find a thousand watchfires ablaze for Christ today and in the camp of the righteous is God's Word read by dim and fading light? Or, is there yet a blazing fire in the belly of the righteous, that declares with jubilant acclaim our God Marches On!

Has not God pierced our hearts and opened our eyes to His coming glory... Can we not hear the incessant feet of His Armies gathering... Soon His terrible swift sword shall scatter His enemies... Be swift, my soul, to answer His call while the sound of His trumpet yet echos ore the hallowed fields all...Remember our forefather's sacrifice... Let us now march to the cadence of the drummers beat, that we may also God's field keep... and with jubilant cries, let us crush the enemies of righteousness... that God's Truth and liberty may not die, in the generations to come... Truly, our God is marching on, in you and I. Amen.