Hold The Fort
Ho, my comrades! see the signal waving in
the sky!
Reinforcements now appearing, victory is nigh.
See the mighty host advancing, Satan leading
on;
Mighty ones around us falling, courage almost gone!
See the glorious banner waving! Hear the
trumpet blow!
In our Leader’s Name we triumph over ev’ry foe.
Fierce and long the battle rages, but our
help is near;
Onward comes our great Commander, cheer, my comrades,
cheer!
Refrain:
“Hold the fort, for I am
coming,” Jesus signals still;
Wave the answer back to Heaven, “By Thy
grace we will.”
BIBLE
REFERENCE:
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's
sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Matthew 10:22
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same
shall be saved.
Matthew 24:13
But that which ye have already hold fast till I
come.
Revelation 2:25
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast,
unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is
not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:58
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold
the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
Hebrews 3:14
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both
sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
Hebrews 6:19
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the
devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the
faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the
world.
1 Peter 5:8-9
Philip Paul Bliss -
Lyrics and Composer
1838-1876
Born: July 9, 1838, Clear�field County, Pennsylvania
Died: December 29, 1876, Ashtabula, Ohio. Bliss and his wife died in a tragic train
wreck caused by a bridge collapse. He survived the initial impact, but went back into the flames in an
unsuccessful attempt to rescue his wife.
Buried: The remains retrieved from the Ashtabula disaster were placed in a common grave marked
by a cenotaph in the Ashtabula Cemetery. A cenotaph in memory of the Blisses was also erected in the
cemetery at Rome, Pennsylvania, July 17, 1877.
HYMN
HISTORY:
As true of so many of P.P. Bliss’s gospel songs,
this stirring hymn was inspired by an illustration used by Major Whittle, an officer in the American
Civil War, while addressing a YMCA meeting on the text from Revelation 2:25. Major Whittle’s
illustration was about a small Northern force of soldiers in charge of guarding a great quantity of
supplies.
Just before General Sherman began his famous march to the sea in 1864, and while his army lay camped
in the neighborhood of Atlanta [Georgia] on the 5th of October, the army of Hood, in a carefully
prepared movement, passed the right flank of Sherman’s army, gained his rear, and commenced
the destruction of the railroad leading north, burning block�houses and capturing the small
garrisons along the line. Sherman’s army was put in rapid motion pursuing Hood, to save the
supplies and larger posts, the principal one of which was located at Altoona Pass.
General Corse, of Illinois, was stationed there with about fifteen hundred men. A million and a half
rations were stored there and it was highly important that the earth�works commanding the pass and
protecting the supplies be held.
Six thousand men under command of General French were detailed by Hood to take the position. The
works were completely surrounded and summoned to surrender. Corse refused and a sharp fight
commenced. The defenders were slowly driven into a small fort on the crest of the hill. Many had
fallen, and the result seemed to render a hopeless fight.
At this moment an officer caught sight of a white signal flag far away across the valley, twenty
miles distant, upon the top of Kenesaw Mountain. The signal was answered, and soon the message was
waved across from mountain to mountain:
“Hold the fort; I am coming. W. T. Sherman.”
Cheers went up; every man was encouraged to hold their position; and under a murderous fire, which
killed or wounded more than half the men in the fort they held the fort for three hours until the
advance guard of Sherman’s army came up. French was obliged to retreat.
The story so captivated Bliss’s interest that he could not retire that evening until he had
completed both the text and the music for this rousing gospel song.
At the next day’s YMCA service, Bliss introduced his new hymn to all of the delegates and the
response was immediate and enthusiastic. Later it became a great favorite in the Moody-Sankey
campaigns both in Great Britain and in the United States. As Moody and Sankey were leaving the
British Isles in 1874, Lord Shaftesbury, presiding at the final service remarked, “If Mr.
Sankey has done no more than teach the people to sing ‘Hold the Fort,’ he has conferred
inestimable blessing on the British Empire, and it would have been worth all the expense of these
meeting.”
Although Philip Bliss did not consider this to be one of his better songs, his monument at Rome,
Pennsylvania, bears this inscription: “P.P. Bliss, author of ‘Hold the
Fort.’”
Dear Brothers and Sisters
in Christ,
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be
able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Ephesians 6:11
We as Christians wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places
.
Ephesians
6:12
We are told to put on the
whole armor of God. The Christian armor is made to be worn; and there is no putting off our armor
until we are done with our warfare, and finished our course.
2 Timothy
4:7
The different parts of the
armor listed in Ephesians guard us against the fiercest assaults of the enemy.
-
Stand therefore, having your loins
girt about with truth
- Truth, or sincerity girds on all the other
pieces of our armor, and is first mentioned.
-
The breastplate of
righteousness
- The righteousness of Christ is a
breastplate that protects the heart against the attacks of Satan.
-
Feet shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace
- Security of our position in Christ must be
as armor to our legs that will allows us to stand our ground and defend truth or to march
forward proclaiming the Gospel. Our feet must be shod with the preparation of the gospel of
peace by studying to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
-
The Shield of Faith
- Applying the word of God and the grace of
Christ to our daily lives we can quench the darts of the enemy.
-
Helmet of Salvation
- Salvation must be our helmet. A
secure position in Christ and the Scriptural expectation of the Second Coming of Christ,
will purify the soul, and keep it from being defiled by Satan.
-
The Sword of the Spirit
- To the Christian armed for defense in
battle, the apostle recommends only one weapon of attack; but it is enough, the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God. A single text, well understood, and rightly applied, at
once destroys a temptation or an Satanic attack, and subdues the mightiest
adversary.
-
Praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit
- Prayer must fasten all the other parts of
our Christian armor. A vain heart will be vain in prayer. We must pray with all types of
prayer, public, private, and secret; social and solitary; solemn and sudden. Our prayers
must contain confession of sin, petition for mercy, and thanksgiving for blessings received.
We must pray by the grace of God with dependence on the Holy Spirit to guide us in our
petitions. We must show perseverance for particular requests, and not bediscouraged if God
does not answer swiftly. We must pray, not for ourselves only, but for all
saints.
Our enemies are mighty, and
we are without strength, but our Redeemer is Almighty, and in the power of His might we may overcome
the attacks of Satan. Wherefore we must check our Armour daily for any weaknesses and strengthen any
areas that we may be vulnerable to attack. It is worth mentioning that there was no armor mentioned
for the back; nothing to defend those who turned their backs in the Christian warfare.