From the recording Dearest Home
Text by Julia Ward Howe, The tune has traditional origins, including, "Say, Brothers Will You Meet Us," and "John Brown's Body." Public Domain, arr © 2013 Dearest Home
Lyrics
BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC (Please join us on last refrain.)
1. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on.
Refrain: Glory, glory! Hallelujah! Glory, glory, glory! Hallelujah!
Glory, glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
2. I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the ev’ning dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps,
His day is marching on. Refrain
3. I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on." Refrain
4. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on. Refrain
5. In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea;
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me.
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on. Refrain