Salvation Army

Last updated: 19/10/2003

In my experience, our lives are generally cyclical in nature – we have good times and bad, positive and negative experiences, happy times and sad. What is critical is how we balance and react to these ups and downs – we have no right as Christians and Salvationists to expect that we should be immune to what life throws at us or to expect our lives to be untroubled in any way.

Right now my life is very much as I would want it to be – I have so much to be thankful for in every sphere of it. Our fellowship at the Corps is a source of great blessing; my family life brings much joy to both Lynn and I with the safe arrival of Cameron just over a year ago and Chris growing up into a fine young man who has also chosen to accept the responsibilities and commitment that senior soldiership entails; and my career is following the path I hoped and expected it would.   

But there have been times in my life when things were not so easy and I have questioned and asked why but I don’t think my faith in God or my commitment as a soldier and bandsman has ever wavered. There are many passages of Scripture and songs in the Army Song Book that bring comfort and reassurance but I’ve always turned to the words of Song 772 in my darker moments, particularly verses 1,3 and 5:

When we cannot see our way,

Let us trust and still obey;

He who bids us forward go,

Cannot fail the way to show.  

Though it be the gloom of night,

Though we see no ray of light,

Since the Lord himself is there,

‘Tis not meet that we should fear.

Be it ours, then, while we’re here,

Him to follow without fear,

Where he calls us, there to go,

What he bids us, that to do.

None of us know, nor would we want to, what the Lord has in store for us, but these words for me speak of the simplicity, and assurance, of complete faith in God – sometimes we have just got to hold onto these basics when life seems to be falling apart around us. I’ve had times in my life where the words of Verse 1 exactly summed up my state of mind and have been, along with the fellowship of the Corps and Band, all that have kept me going. 

It is a privilege that I don’t take for granted to be part of Bellshill Band – we try as a group of Christian people to use the collective and individual talents that we have to extend the Kingdom. We are, as the Band’s Motto “pro causa optima” translates, playing for the best reason of all. A very personal motivation for me as a Bandsman is the memory of my own dad, standing outside the Army Hall in Rochdale on Easter Sunday Morning in 1983, tears in his eyes as he watched, along with another old bandsman now also promoted to glory, Parkhead Band marching away to the Open Air. My dad was very ill at the time, and was promoted to glory some eighteen months later, but the hurt in his face because he couldn’t march and witness with the Band will remain with me. How much we take for granted!

I would finish my testimony with reference to an old arrangement from the Salvation Army’s Festival Series Music entitled The Good Old Way. It was featured by the International Staff Band on the first LP I bought as a youngster almost thirty years ago and I was originally attracted to it by the musical style of the piece – it remains one of my favourite pieces of music. It was many years later that I came across the notes on the Score explaining the background to the piece and its origin in words found in an Army song dating back to 1875, and written in the Revivalist tradition of the 19^th century: 

O Good Old Way, how sweet thou art,

May none of us from thee depart

But may our actions always say:

“We’re marching in the Good Old Way”.

For I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul,

For I know I have, and I feel I have

A sweet hope of glory in my soul.

Our conflicts here, though great they be,

Shall not prevent our victory;

If we but strive to watch and pray,

Like soldiers in the Good Old Way.

Old words, yes, written in an old style, but nevertheless sentiments that are very current for me – I pray that I will never depart from the way, that I will continue marching for my Lord and that I might in some small way be instrumental in bringing the sweet hope of glory to those who listen to this Band.

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