America Must Pray
By Dr. Mal Couch
Public prayer, spiritual publications of poems and music, have always been a part of America, until recently. There are forces now trying to silence the Christian spiritual heritage of open and free expression to our God that made this nation great.
Each week I’ll add some historical tidbits as how Christian expression and public prayer was a vital part of our nation’s blessing. We may not fully know of the spiritual state of all the men we examine, but we do know none of them were fearful of prayers to the God of the Bible in the public setting.
If you are a pastor or Sunday school teacher, please print off these little bits of our history and share them with others.
George Duffield
In 1857, just before the Civil War began in 1861, the nation fell into a deep economic depression. Though conditions improved by 1859 thousands of businesses had been destroyed. But at the same time a recovery had begun. However because of the pain and destruction of the depression, across the country as if with one voice, businessmen began to meet daily at noon for prayer, Bible reading, and singing. This continued for years and became known as the Businessmen’s Revival.
This prayer time each day reaffirmed the strong convictions of the country’s commercial class, and it was a no-nonsense, unapologetic affirmation of biblical revelation. The theme song of many of these groups was Stand Up For Jesus, that went like this:
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.
The song had been written by Presbyterian minister George Duffield when the words came to him as he listened to the dying words of a young friend the Reverend Dudley Tyng. Tyng, after having preached to five thousand men at one of these Businessmen’s Revivals, was patting a mule on his farm when one of his clerical robes and the sleeve got caught in a running corn thresher. His arm was torn off. Tyng immediately passed out for loss of blood.
Duffield found his friend in the field dying. Carrying him up to the farmhouse Tyng came awake momentarily. Holding Duffield’s hand, Tyng looked up and whispered, "Tell them, tell them to stand up for Jesus." And with that he died. Duffield later put those words into lyrics he was inspired to write. Within weeks the song was published and was sung in every Protestant church across the land. It became the unofficial anthem of the Businessmen’s Revival movement!