Lyrics
Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follower of the Lamb,
And shall I fear to own His cause,
Or blush to speak His name?
Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?
Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?
Sure I must fight, if I would reign;
Increase my courage, Lord;
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy word.
The saints in all this glorious war
Shall conquer, though they die;
They see the triumph from afar
By faith’s discerning eye.
When that illustrious day shall rise,
And all Thine armies shine
In robes of victory through the skies,
The glory shall be Thine.
Public domain hymn text (1724). Words by Isaac Watts.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Isaac Watts wrote this hymn’s text in 1724 — considerably later in his career than several of his more famous hymns represented elsewhere in this collection.
He drew directly on 2 Timothy 2:3, in which the apostle Paul instructs Timothy to ‘endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.’ He built an extended series of pointed rhetorical questions throughout the hymn’s verses, challenging the singer’s own willingness to accept genuine spiritual hardship, rather than expecting an easy, comfortable Christian life.
The hymn’s second verse asks whether the singer expects to ‘be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease,’ while others actively ‘fought to win the prize.’
That represents a notably direct, almost confrontational challenge, unusual even among Watts’s own considerable body of work — more typically known for its confident praise and theological instruction, than for this kind of pointed personal interrogation of the singer’s own commitment and willingness to endure difficulty.
Watts himself lived much of his adult life in chronic poor health, largely dependent on the charity of a patron family, rather than through any physically demanding labor or hardship of his own. Given that, the hymn’s challenge to accept hardship ‘without ease’ carries a somewhat different weight than if it had come from a writer whose own life had been marked by more obvious physical struggle or persecution.
Watts appears to have understood the ‘soldier’ language primarily in terms of inward spiritual discipline and public boldness in confessing one’s faith, rather than describing any specific external hardship from his own comparatively sheltered, patron-supported existence.
Thomas A. Arne, an English composer perhaps best known for composing the patriotic song ‘Rule, Britannia!,’ wrote the tune most commonly associated with this hymn.
It has remained a standard hymn of Christian commitment and confirmation. Its pointed questions are still used today to challenge congregations toward more active, public confession of faith, rather than passive or private belief alone.
