War and the faith of our Fathers
During the First Boer War, fought in 1880 - 1881 between the United Kingdom and the South African Republic, hymns were a great comfort to the soldiers. The hymns were so large a part of their lives that they not only knew all of the lyrics to the sacred songs, but they even memorized the page numbers of many hymns. When the British soldiers going to the front were passing another troop of soldiers, they would greet them with “494, boys; 494”; answered with “6 further on, boys; 6 further on.” The significance of this was that, in their hymnal‘Sacred Songs and Solos,’ 494 was, ‘God be with you till we meet again;’ and 6 further on than 494 was 500, ‘Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.’
We lose something deeply meaningful, something binding and sustaining, when we throw out the hymnals. Our fathers knew.
