Fight the Good Fight

Praise for the Lord #152

Words: John S. B. Monsell, 1853
Music: William Boyd, 1864

John Samuel Bewley Monsell (1811-1875) was an Irish Anglican born at St. Columb's, Londonderry, the son of Archdeacon of Londonderry Thomas Bewley Monsell. He attended Trinity College in Dublin, receiving a doctorate in 1856, and served parishes in Ireland and England (Julian 762). Monsell was a prolific writer, producing eleven volumes of poetry between 1837 and 1874, with approximately 300 hymns to his credit (Julian 762). According to the instances listed at Hymnary.org, his most popular work by far is the hymn under discussion, as well as "Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness," both found in many hymnals published in our century. Other still popular hymns by Monsell include "Sing to the Lord of Harvest" and "Ask Ye what Great Thing I Know."

John Julian said of Monsell's hymns,

Dr. Monsell's hymns are as a whole bright, joyous, and musical; but they lack massiveness, concentration of thought, and strong emotion. A few only are of enduring excellence (763).  

For Julian, in my experience, this is nearly a compliment! D. J. O'Donoghue, writing in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, stated it in kinder fashion: "He urged that hymns should be fervent and joyous, and that congregations should abandon their sense of distance and reserve in singing." Monsell himself was characteristically modest about his abilities, stating with wry humor in the preface to one of his hymnals:

The Parish Hymnal claims, above those Hymnals which have preceded it, these advantages only: i. It is the latest; ii. The simplest; iii. The shortest extant (Monsell PH 1873).

But his earnest commitment to hymn-singing, as well as his bright, cheery nature, is evident from the preface to the work in which "Fight the Good Fight" appears:

The following Hymns were written to illustrate an idea which has long filled their author's mind, that such portions of our Divine worship should be more fervent and joyous, more expressive of real and personal love to God than they are in general found to be.

We are, alas! too distant and reserved in our praises. We sing not, as if our hearts were on fire with the flame of Divine love and joy; as we should sing to Him, and of Him, Who is Chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely. If we loved Him as we ought to do, we could not be so cold.

Toward the removal of this dulness and formality, few things are more helpful than glowing tender Hymns; they quicken as well as convey the desires of the soul, they say for us what many are unable to say for themselves, what a lifted eye, a voiceless breathing, has often said to God for us all; and in the use of them the spirit catches their heavenly fervour, and  draws nearer to Him it is adoring (Hymns of Love and Praise for the Church's Year, London: Bell and Daldy, 1862, preface). 

With respect to Dr. Julian's exacting critical opinion, I believe a careful look at this hymn by Monsell reveals not only a cheery and positive attitude, but a solid intellectual and doctrinal underpinning based on Scripture. It is an admirable combination.

St. John's Church, Egham, where
Monsell served as vicar 1853-1870.
Photo by Michael Ford, Wikimedia Commons. 

Stanza 1:
Fight the good fight 
With all thy might; 
Christ is thy strength, and Christ thy right;
Lay hold on life, and it shall be
Thy joy and crown eternally.

The first line is a direct quotation of Paul's command to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:12, and ties as well to Paul's self-description in 2 Timothy 4:7. This pair of related texts are central to the hymn, with recurring ideas in the succeeding stanzas.

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses (1 Timothy 6:12). 

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).

The Greco-Roman world of Paul's upbringing was as sports-minded as any culture today, and his home town Tarsus was no exception, having a stadium by the river Cydnus where games were periodically held (Taylor 5). Not surprisingly, Paul frequently borrows the language of competitive sports to illustrate aspects of the Christian life. In 1 Corinthians 9:26 he even refers to literal fighting as sport, drawing on the difference between training and the actual match: "I do not box as one beating the air." The kind of "fighting" he describes in the letters to Timothy is a different word in Greek, agōnizomai, which is obviously related to our English words "agony" and "agonize," depicting a sustained, punishing effort that requires both physical and mental toughness. In the context of boxing, I am reminded of Muhammad Ali's famous "rope-a-dope" strategy, in which he fought defensively through several rounds until his opponent had tired himself out, counting on his own reserves of strength and determination to bring about a late victory.

Monsell, quoting Paul, reminds us that this is the Christian life--it is never a first-round knockout, you have to fight all the way to the end. Paul could speak of his fight in the past tense in 2 Timothy 4:7, because he knew he was near the end of his life and could do little more. The rest of us need to keep our heads in the game. How often have you seen an immature team become careless because they had built up a lead in the score, and then lose the game to an opponent that found a second wind? We need to be prepared for a long, hard fight, for however long our Lord sees fit to leave us in the game.

This fight, says Monsell's hymn, must be fought with all our might. Fortunately it is not our might alone that is involved--Christ is our strength. Perhaps the author had in mind Paul's statements on this topic in Ephesians and Colossians, two letters that so often run in parallel thoughts:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father ... that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being (Ephesians 3:14, 16). 

We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be ... strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy (Colossians 1:9, 11).

Paul knew what it was to need this strengthening. Though his writing can give us the image of a strong, confident man with an overpowering personality, the same Paul admitted to the Corinthians that "I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling" (1 Corinthians 2:3). He was not a superman--he was just a man who relied on the Lord's strength in spite of his own weakness. In a far more dire situation in Rome, he informs Timothy of a similar situation:

At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth (2 Timothy 4:16-17).

To Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13) was much more than a motivational poster; it was how he survived day to day, hour to hour.

The third line of the stanza makes a turn from the admonition to fight, to the prize for which we fight: not only is Christ our strength to fight, He is also the source of the "right" or righteousness to which we aspire. Paul wanted this: "[to] be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith" (Philippians 3:9). Jesus "became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30).

The end result of this fight is found in the second half of 1 Timothy 6:12, to "lay hold on eternal life." A little later in the chapter Paul expands on that theme, telling Timothy to admonish the Christians (the well-to-do especially) to make this their aim, rather than any lesser goal found in this life only:

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life (1 Timothy 6:17-19).

Now by the circumstances of the life he had chosen, Paul was not likely to be tempted to turn back from his goal by mere material wealth. No, his struggles were with his own past--Paul, formerly Saul, described himself as once a "blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent" (1 Timothy 1:13), who "was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth" (Acts 26:9). Paul could not undo those things in his past, no matter how he wished he might; but instead of being paralyzed by the past, he "laid hold" on the future his Lord had promised, and fought on.

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).

In the Christian race, as in many athletic competitions, it is more important how we finish than how we began.

Stanza 2: 
Run the straight race 
Through God's good grace,
Lift up thine eyes, and seek His face;
Life with its way before us lies:
Christ is the path, and Christ the prize.

The second stanza of Monsell's hymn probably refers to another of Paul's passages regarding one of the favorite Greco-Roman sports, the foot race.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).

The Corinthians would have ample reason to relate to this topic, since their city hosted the Isthmian Games, one of the premier athletic and musical competitions of the ancient world. The city's location at a land and sea crossroads drew famous competitors from all of Greece, and it was understandably a major part of civic life (Taylor 10).

Paul's quote implies the need for correct training, but adherence to the rules was also necessary to win; judges were chosen from among the most respected and prominent citizens of the community, and cheating was met with disdain. In Galatians 2:2 Paul explains that he discussed the gospel with the other apostles he met in Jerusalem, "in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain." This is the "straight race" of which Monsell writes, because it is possible to run in vain. Paul applies the metaphor to the Galatians themselves later, sounding very much like a frustrated coach: "You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" (Galatians 5:7).

The hymn encourages us to avoid missteps by lifting up our eyes. It seems obvious enough that we should look up when running, but I have had the unfortunate experience of running into trees, fences, and even a parked truck while jogging at night, because I tend to stare at the road right in front of me and let my attention drift off. Metaphorically speaking, this is even more common in daily living. It is not necessarily a major setback that will throw us off course (we may in fact draw closer to God under severe trials), but rather, the frustrations small and large that face us every day make it difficult to keep our eyes on the goal. We need to be reminded of what we are doing; as the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews says (I almost wrote "as Paul says" since it sounds so much like him):

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1).

When we remember why we are really here, we begin to seek that true path again, focusing on our goal--Jesus Christ. He is the goal we seek to meet someday in heaven, and He is the goal we seek (always imperfectly) to imitate. Not only is He the prize, He is also the path, because He is "Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6). In His perfect life He shows us where we are headed, how to get there, and what to strive to become along the way.

Stanza 3: 
Cast care aside, 
Upon thy Guide
Lean, and His mercy will provide;
Lean, and the trusting soul shall prove
Christ is its life, and Christ its love.

The third stanza opens with a reference to the admonition of Peter:

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your cares upon Him, because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:6-7). 

It is such a beautiful Scripture, it is easy to miss the fact that it is a command! The same is true of Paul's well known statement,

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God (Philippians 4:6). 

The words of Jesus are also imperative in Matthew 6:25, "Do not be anxious!"

As my friend and brother Eddie Parrish has said many times from the pulpit, this has to be one of the most ignored commands Jesus ever gave, at least among Christians. I wish I could say he was talking about someone else. I have clung to my worries as desperately as an alcoholic holds on to his bottle. Like many an alcoholic, I have tried to do better, and fallen back into it, even though I know it is hurting me and everyone who loves. I'm not saying it is the same, because the mechanisms of addiction are at work in the one and not in the other; but it is convicting that I would recognize the seriousness of the struggle with alcohol and yet turn a blind eye to worry and anxiety as a "little sin." God help us to recognize our failings in this area personally, and to support one another in overcoming this sin by God's help.

The Psalms in particular are full of language about God as our Guide and Leader. Perhaps David's experiences leading his sheep, and later leading his army, made him especially aware of the need for careful guidance in finding the right paths, which set this trend in the Psalter's description of God.

He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake (23:2-3).

He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble His way (25:9).

For You are my Rock and my Fortress; and for Your name's sake You lead me and guide me (31:3).

You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will receive me to glory (73:24).

Instead of trusting our own wisdom and strength, Monsell's hymn tells us to lean upon God. No doubt the most often quoted verse on this subject is Proverbs 3:5,

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And do not lean on your own understanding.

Along the same line of thought is this unusual proverb from Isaiah 50:10,

Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of His Servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God. 

The quote from Proverbs tells us that just as a general principle, we should lean on God and not on ourselves. How much more so when we are in the darkness of uncertainty? Here is the help we need against worry and care--a God who is there, even when we cannot see the way ahead.

The second half of the stanza reminds us of the strength and security of that upon which we lean and trust. "God will provide" echoes down through the ages, from Abraham on Mount Moriah when he declares in faith, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering" in place of Abraham's precious son Isaac. (How heavily those words and that scene should rest on us who view them from this side of the Cross!) God still provides. No matter how we are tempted in this world to think we provide for ourselves, Paul reminds the well-to-do "not to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy" (1 Timothy 6:17). Rather than trusting in ourselves or our own achievements, we need to trust in His promises and grow in the graces He sets before us as our goals; "for in this way there will be richly provide for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:11).

In the final lines of this stanza we read that for the soul leaning upon God, "Christ is its life, and Christ its love." This is a goal far in advance of most of us (certainly myself), but one for which we strive. Paul could say that he had reached it--"for me, to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21)--but after how many years of struggle? We know from Romans chapter 7 that Paul struggled as we all do with sins that threatened to draw him away from his course, but we are confident from his inspired words that he achieved his goal, a life in which Christ was all that mattered. God grant us all such an end!

Stanza 4:
Faint not, nor fear, 
His arms are near;
He changeth not, and thou art dear;
Only believe, and thou shalt see
That Christ is all in all to thee.

Monsell concludes his hymn with a final appeal to renewed courage and activity. Paul addressed this topic often, reminding the Galatians,

Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up (6:9). 

It was a message for the individual Christian, and for the church as a whole; to the Thessalonian church Paul to "encourage the fainthearted" (1 Thessalonians 5:14) as well. But the call for Christian renewal is not just a hollow pep talk of positive thinking. This endurance is based on something much greater than ourselves and our own abilities:

Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted (Hebrews 12:3). 

Our capacity for renewal relies (thankfully) in One whose mercies are "new every morning" (Lamentations 3:23). Isaiah addressed this topic beautifully in a well known passage:

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:28-31).

Because God "changeth not" we need not fear change, whether in the world around us or in our personal lives.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). 

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet (Hebrews 12:12-13b). 

The race lies clearly before us, and Jesus Christ who "fills all in all" will provide us the strength to reach the goal.

About the music:

William Boyd (1847-1928), an Anglican vicar by profession, had the unusual fortune to write one famous hymn tune--PENTECOST--which became so associated with him that his obituary in the London Times was headlined "The Rev. William Boyd: composer of a famous hymn tune." Born in Jamaica to Scottish parents, he was tutored by Sabine Baring-Gould (author of "Onward, Christian soldiers), and came to be friends with such musical worthies as Sir Arthur Sullivan (who wrote the tune for Baring-Gould's famous hymn) (Times obituary).

Though I ordinarily refrain from extensive quoting of another's work, in this case I can present no better background to this hymn tune than what was given by the composer in an interview published in The Musical Times (1 December 1908, pages 786-787):

The Rev. William Boyd, who comes from old Scots stock of lowland border thieves--as he is wont to say--and is now Vicar of All Saints', Norfolk Square, Hyde Park, has been kind enough in pleasant conversation with the present writer, to tell the story of his popular tune. "I began to compose," he says, "when I was a boy of ten years of age. Some of my youthful attempts you will find in Iceland, its scenes and sagas (1863), by Baring-Gould. He was my tutor at Hurstpierpoint, and during his stay in Iceland (in 1862) he wrote to me often, exemplifying his letters by characteristic pen-and-ink sketches to describe men and things. For that his first book, I put into harmonized shape some of the tunes he had noted down during his Icelandic tour. I went up to Oxford in 1864, and was organ scholar of my college (Worcester), and I also played at St. Edmund Hall, Trinity and Pembroke."

"Baring-Gould asked me to compose a tune to 'Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,' to be sung at a large meeting of Yorkshire colliers at Whitsuntide which he had organized. I walked, talked, slept and ate with the words, and at last I evolved the tune which I naturally named 'Pentecost,' which had an enormous vogue in Yorkshire. One day, during my undergraduate period at Oxford, G. A. B. Beecroft, a Christ Church man and an amateur musician, came to me and said: 'I want some fellows who write hymn tunes above the average to contribute to a book I am getting up--write me three.' I agreed and sent him four tunes from Clent, in Worcestershire, where I was spending Christmas with my friend John Amphlett--now a well-known literary figure in the country. One of these tunes was 'Pentecost,' which I had previously composed for Baring-Gould but which remained in manuscript. Beecroft's collection was published by Bowden, of Oxford, in the sixties."

"How came the tune to be associated with 'Fight the good fight'?" we ask Mr. Boyd. "Ah! that is a funny thing," he replies. "One day as I was walking Regent Street, I felt a slap on my back, and turning round I saw my dear old friend Arthur Sullivan. 'My dear Billy,' he said, 'I've seen a tune of yours which I must have.' (He was then editing Church Hymns.) 'All right,' I said, 'Send me a cheque and I agree.' No copy of the book, much less a proof, was sent to me, and when I saw the tune I was horrified to find that Sullivan had assigned it to 'Fight the good fight'! We had a regular fisticuffs about it, but judging from the favour with which the tune has been received, I feel that Sullivan was right in so mating words and music."

"The tune was printed in the 1875 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern without my permission. In their last edition they turned me out, also without my permission. Still they had to come back, I rejoice to say, for people said 'the old was better.' Since then it has found its way into most collections, Church of England and Nonconformist, and has gone all over the English-speaking world. There is hardly a week that I do not get a couple of letters from far or near asking me to allow of its insertion in some new publication. And I do, in most cases, allow it, but with the proviso that the tune must be set to the words 'Fight the good fight'."

William Boyd, 1847-1928

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References:

Taylor, Elias L. "The Christian Marathoner: Athletic References in Paul's Epistles." Journal of Arts and Humanities, vol. 4, no. 11, 2015.
https://www.theartsjournal.org/index.php/site/article/view/814/421

"Fight the good fight." The Musical Times (London), no. 790,  vol. 49 (1 December 1908), pages 786-788.
https://books.google.com/books?id=xyk5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA786#v=onepage&q&f=false

Julian, John. A Dictionary of Hymnology. New York: Dover, 1957.

Monsell, John S. B. Hymns of Love and Praise for the Church Year. London: Bell and Daldy, 1863. https://archive.org/details/hymnsloveandpra01monsgoog/

Monsell, John S. B., editor. The Parish Hymnal. London: Bell and Daldy, 1873.
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044077927366?urlappend=%3Bseq=53

O'Donoghue, D. J. "Monsell, John Samuel Bewley," revised by Leon Litvack. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Published online 2009. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/18982

"The Rev. William Boyd." Times (London), 17 Feb. 1928, page 19. From The Times Digital Archive, accessed 13 May 2019.