In His Word, God has told us, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). Fiery trials have come again and again, from the martyrs under the Roman Emperor Nero to those whose lives were taken during the years of England’s Bloody Mary and even today for those enduring torturous conditions in regions of harsh totalitarian oppression. Many of us remember learning of the five missionaries martyred in the jungles of Ecuador in 1956. Historians have said that the history of the church is the history of persecution. The same world that hated the Lord Jesus has continued in every age to hate His church.
We remember these things in a focused way on the first Sunday in November each year as we observe the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. It is an occasion to call attention to our brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer under the cruel persecution of a hostile world, as it comes from false religions and tyrannical governments. We are grateful for ministries like Voice of the Martyrs, Open Doors USA, and Barnabas Aid. They help us know what is happening to believers in places like North Korea and Somalia, like China and India, like Myanmar and Nigeria. And these ministries also help us learn how to pray for those suffering for the name of Christ.
There is a substantial body of literature that addresses the matter of persecution. One of the classics was John Foxe’s multi-volume Book of Martyrs, first published in 1563. He chronicled the long line of martyrs from the time of the apostles to his own day in the years following the death of England’s Queen Mary. She came to be known as Bloody Mary because of the 300 Protestants burned alive at the stake in England during her mercifully brief five year reign (1553 – 1558). This book has been continually in print since its first publication. More recent books have told the stories of persecution in Communist and Islamic nations, as well as the increasing hostility to Christianity in our own land.
Among the hymns that provide us with texts suitable for the occasion is Frederick Faber’s “Faith of Our Fathers.” It includes the line, “in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword.” Faber (1814 – 1863) grew up as a son of an Anglican clergyman. After graduating from Oxford, he was drawn to the high church practices of the Church of England, and through that to the Oxford Movement, which sought to revive the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. Eventually he joined others, like John Henry Newman, within that movement who followed the path from Canterbury to Rome. That was in 1843, the same year in which he was appointed to an Anglican parish ministry. As a Roman Catholic priest, he move to London in 1849, where he established the Oratorians, also known as Priests of the Congregation of St. Philip of Neri.
Faber is best-known today as a hymn-writer, having written about 150. It is primarily for this hymn, “Faith of Our Fathers,” that he is remembered. He acknowledged that he used the hymns of the Wesleys, as well as the Olney hymns of John Newton and William Cowper, as models that he sought to emulate. But his writing came after his conversion to the Church of Rome, which has not had much of a heritage for congregational singing. In the preface to his book Jesus and Mary: Catholic Hymns for Singing and Reading (1849) he wrote this about his own hymn-writing.
It was natural then that an English son of St. Philip should feel the want of a collection of English Catholic hymns fitted for singing. The few in the Garden of the Soul were all that were at hand, and of course they were not numerous enough to furnish the requisite variety. As translations, they do not express Saxon thought and feelings, and consequently the poor do not seem to take to them. The domestic wants of the Oratory, too, keep alive the feeling that something of the sort was needed: though at the same time the author’s ignorance of music appeared in some measure to disqualify him for the work of supplying the defect.
“Faith of Our Fathers” first appeared in that Jesus and Mary collection. He wrote it as a hymn about the legacy of Catholic martyrs in England since the time of Henry VIII in the mid-16th century. That is evident in the original words of the third stanza.
Faith of our Fathers! Mary’s prayers
Shall win our country back to thee.
Obviously that would not be acceptable to Protestant minds, and so after the hymn made its way to America in 1853, that text was changed to what we now recognize.
Faith of our Fathers! God’s great pow’r
Shall draw all nations unto thee..
As we sing it, we think of those who have shed their blood for the sake of Christ. Instead of Faber’s reference to Catholic martyrs at the hands of Protestants after the time of Bloody Mary, we think the opposite, of Protestants who were put to death by being burned alive at the stake during Mary’s reign of terror, men like Cranmer and Latimer and Ridley. And as we sing, we remember not only the history of martyrs like Isaiah (Hebrews 11:37) and Stephen (Acts 7:58), but also the blessing that Jesus promised in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:10-12).
There are two important words in this hymn that need to be defined … “faith” and “fathers.” Who are these fathers? In the broadest sense this refers to all those who have gone before us, on whose shoulders we stand. We know some of their names … like Abraham, Moses, David, and Isaiah … like John and Paul and Luke and Matthew … like Augustine and Luther and Edwards and Spurgeon. But there are also countless “fathers” who are nameless to us, but saints whose names God knows and whose work He continues to bless, including those who have given their lives for the sake of the gospel in our own lifetime.
And what is this “faith?” It is not the subjective feelings of peace and fulfillment and joy that we experience as a result of our faith. It is the objective content of that faith, it is the content of the gospel … it is what those fathers believed about God and His word … it is what those fathers believed about who Jesus is and what He did for us on the cross … it is what those fathers believed about the holiness to which we have been called and which the Holy Spirit is in the process of cultivating in our hearts
The music (ST. CATHERINE) which we use to sing this hymn has come to us from Henri Hemy (1818-1888), an esteemed English organist and composer. Henri was born in England to German parents. He proved to be a gifted musician and served as the organist at St. Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church in Newcastle. He later became a professor of music at St. Cuthbert’s College in Durham. In 1864, he published a popular book of music called Crown of Jesus Music in which his tune was set to a hymn text called “St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr,” a fourth century lady who was put death because of her faith. In 1874, James Walton (1821-1905) adapted Henri’s tune and set it to “Faith of Our Fathers” in his book Plain Song Music for the Holy Communion. He added the refrain that we now find in our hymnals to fit the music.
In America, the hymn has largely come to be associated with patriotism, thinking of fathers like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. However, in its present form, the hymn is truly timeless and borderless (it can be sung by Christians in any time period and any geographic region), it honors both the “Author of Our Faith” and any Christian who has risked his or her life for their faith and/or for freedom of religion!
And so when we sing this on the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, our hearts resonate with the call to be true to this faith in our lives, even if it means “dungeon, fire, and sword.” The repeated refrain which James Walton added gives us the words to renew our commitment to not only embrace that holy “faith of our fathers,” but also to promise before the Lord … and the watching world … that we will be true to that faith “till death.”
In stanza 1, we celebrate a faith that is wonderful and still very much alive, despite all the efforts of the evil one to extinguish it. Believers have maintained their gospel convictions and their bold witness for Christ even when threatened with “dungeon, fire, and sword.” But not only is that faith still living, it is also what enable us to have hearts that “beat high with joy whene’er we hear God’s glorious word.” And that’s exactly what we experience every time we gather for worship to hear Gods word proclaimed. And it will be that word that sustains us in times when we face persecution for our faith.
Faith of our fathers! Living still In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword;
O how our hearts beat high with joy Whene’er we hear God’s glorious word.
Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to thee till death.
In stanza 2, we see more clearly the degree of earnest commitment we have professed in our loyalty to Christ. Some of those who have gone before us were literally “chained in prisons dark.” We remember the Apostle Paul who was imprisoned in Rome when he wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, and again when he wrote to Timothy from death row in Rome (2 Timothy 4:6-8) that he had fought the good fight, had finished the race, and had kept the faith. Part of this stanza makes the stunning but true declaration, “and blest would be their children’s fate if they, like them, should die for thee.” As stark as that sounds, it matches the words in Acts 5:4 that believers considered it an honor to suffer for Christ.
Our fathers, chained in prisons dark, Were still in heart and conscience free;
And blest would be their children’s fate If they, like them, should die for thee.
Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to thee till death.
In stanza 3, we look beyond our present suffering to rejoice in God’s promise that our suffering will not have been in vain. We are confident that God, by His great power, will bring all nations to bow before the lordship of Christ (Philippians 2:9-11). And it is only the gospel of Jesus Christ that can truly set people free from bondage to sin and from the wrath of God. What a day it will be when, as Isaiah wrote (11:9) “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.”
Faith of our fathers! God’s great pow’r Shall draw all nations unto thee;
And through the truth that comes from God is people shall indeed be free.
Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to thee till death.
In stanza 4, we review what we have sung, realizing that while our words are about Jesus, they are directed to that faith as if it were personalized. Though it is to that faith that we profess our loyalty, that’s just another way of saying that it is to Jesus that we profess that loyalty. And so, whenever we find the word “thee” in the hymn, it is not capitalized. And in this stanza, it is that faith which we preach; it is to that faith that we will be true till death. And every time we find the word “faith,” we could just as rightly sing Christ! The Great Commission we have been given is to preach that faith, to preach Him, with love for “both friends and foe,” even amid the strife of our suffering persecution for His name’s sake.
Faith of our fathers! We will love Both friends and foe in all our strife,
And preach thee, too, as love knows how By witness true and virtuous life.
Faith of our fathers, holy faith! We will be true to thee till death.
Here is an example of the singing of this hymn. Over the years there have been occasional changes to the text, as is evident here.