STAND UP!

"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth..." (Eph.6:13,14p)

The famous hymn, "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus" has a story behind it. The year was 1854, and at the age of twenty-nine, Dudley Tyng had already become rector of the Church of the Epiphany in Philadelphia. But he was not a typical "fashionable" pastor. He believed firmly that all men are sinners who need to REPENT!

By the end of his second year in that ministry, his bold and straight-forward denunciation of SIN so disturbed his cultured, wealthy parishioners that some were demanding his removal. He resigned from there and formed the "Church of the Covenant" and lived in his country home outside Philadelphia.

On Tuesday, March 30th, 1858, over five thousand men were gathered in a hall and heard him preach from Exodus 10:11, "Ye that are men... serve the Lord." It was a passionate and moving challenge that those present would never forget.

Because he spoke so strongly, he asked pardon for anything that had offended his hearers; but he added, "I must tell my Master's errand, and I would rather that this right arm (clasping his left hand to his right arm at the shoulder) were amputated at the trunk, than that I should come short of my duty to you in delivering God's message." Over one thousand men confessed Christ that day!

The next week, at home on the farm, while he was near a horse-powered corn sheller, his clothing was caught in the cogs of the machine, severely mangling his arm, and his arm had to be CUT OFF.

It became obvious that he would not recover from the severe shock to his body, and with the same heroic spirit which never forsook him through all his sufferings, he received the solemn announcement of his impending departure by answering: "Then it is well, it is very well! God's will be done!" He urged those about him to become Christians, and taking his father by the hand, he said, "Stand up for Jesus; father, stand up for Jesus; and tell my brethren of the ministry, wherever you meet them, to stand up for Jesus!" (And so he passed on to be with the Lord.)

The following Sunday, Tyng's friend George Duffield, Jr., preached on Ephesians 6:14, "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth." At the end of the sermon, he read the stanzas of the hymn which he had written shortly after the funeral, in Dudley's memory.

The second stanza of the hymn has part of the text of Dudley Tyng's sermon in that memorable YMCA meeting: "Ye that are men, now serve Him." It takes REAL MEN to stand up for Jesus in the office and the factory! It takes courageous women to stand up for Christ in the neighborhood and it takes brave boys and girls to stand up for Jesus in the classroom.

"Stand up for JESUS, Ye soldiers of the cross;
Lift high His royal banner, It must not suffer loss."

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and never cease to stand for him. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. --Richard