Dudley Tyng was a
well-known preacher in the days just before the Civil War. In 1858, he had just
finished speaking to 5,000 young men at the Philadelphia YMCA in which 1,000
responded to the invitation to accept Christ as Savior. In his message, Dudley
said, “I would rather this right arm was amputated at the trunk than I should
come up short of my duty of delivering God’s message.”
One week later, while on
his family farm Dudley was involved in a freak accident. His jacket got caught
in the gears of corn thrasher and his arm was pulled into the machine and lacerated
beyond repair. In a few hours, he would
die. Medicine was so primitive at that time, and the loss of blood was too
great.
His father was there at
the deathbed and reminded Dudley that thousands of people were gathering to
hear him preach again that evening. What
did he want said to them? Dudley strained to get the words out of his failing
lips, and said, “Tell the people to stand up for Jesus.”
That night, the assembly
hall was packed with people expecting to hear Dudley preach. But, instead of hearing him preach, they
learned of his accident and death. Then,
they were given the words of his final message, “Stand up for Jesus.”
Dudley’s friend and fellow
clergyman George Duffield heard those last words and composed a poem. Duffield
preached at Dudley’s funeral from Ephesians 6:14, “Stand therefore, having
fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.”
He ended his sermon by reciting that poem, which was later put to music and
became a classic hymn:
Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross
Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss
From victory unto victory His army shall he lead,
Till every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord
indeed.[1]
The Bible is full of bold
and brave men and women whose spines-stiffened as they dug in their heels for the
Lord. Noah stood against an evil generation and built an Ark (Gen. 6-9). David,
the ruddy shepherd, stood against the Philistine giant Goliath (1 Sam. 17). The
Hebrew trio—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—opted to burn rather than bow to
Nebuchadnezzar’s idol (Dan. 3). Jesus stood toe-to-toe with Roman governor
Pilate and “gave the good confession” (1 Tim. 6:13). Living for God requires us
to stand up for the weak and oppressed (Ps. 82:3-4), to stand firm in the faith
(1 Cor. 16:13) and to stand against the advance of evil in our world (Eph.
6:10-11). God has not called us to be wallflowers or to fit in with the crowd.
We are to stick out and stand up. As the Puritans would say, “He who kneels
before God can stand up to anyone.”
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