Soldier for Jesus

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "I'm a soldier for Jesus Enlisted for the war, And I'll fight until I die." Verses are about a "soldier of the cross"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious battle
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, pp. 27-28, "Soldier for Jesus" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Rev. Stephen D. Shaffer, Pilgrim Songster (Zanesville: Shaffer, 1848 ("Digitized by the Internet Archive")), p. 211, ("A soldier for Jesus, Ive listed in the war, And I'll fight until I die")
NOTES [168 words]: The description is based on the Barton-OldPlantationHymns text.
The first verse is a two-line excerpt from "Am I a Soldier of the Cross." Barton-OldPlantationHymns's remaining verses are couplets, not from that hymn: "This is the way I long have sought And mourned because I found it not" and "I've got my breastplate, sword and shield And I will die upon the field." The latter verse is reminiscent of another Moody and Sankey verse, "Then gird on the sword of the Spirit, With helmet, and breastplate, and shield; And valiantly follow your Captain, Determined you will never yield" (Ira D. Sankey, Sacred Songs and Solos Twelve Hundred Hymns (London: Collins, n.d.), #671, ("Awake! for the trumpet is sounding"); "Am I a Soldier of the Cross" is also in Sankey and Moody [#672]. Sankey and Moody is now a convenient collection, but was not yet printed when Barton collected his hymns.)
Shaffer does not print the entire song. The excerpt is listed in a section headed "A Collection of Choice Choruses." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart027C

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