By Glenn Dromgoole

I was weeping by the time Dee Romines, our music minister, finished the second verse of his offertory solo of “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?”

I remembered a story my father told me many years ago related to that hymn.

When my dad moved to the small town of Sour Lake, Texas, in 1944, an old retired Baptist preacher became a good friend – and mentor to the young preacher.

One day the old preacher, who my dad always called Brother Hogan, told a story.

Brother Hogan was a very young preacher himself and had grown tired and frustrated with trying to minister on the then quite wild and not very religious Texas frontier.

He decided that preaching just wasn’t his calling. He met with his supervisor and said he had enough, he just couldn’t do it anymore.

The old adviser said he understood, but that before Brother Hogan left, would he join him in singing that great Isaac Watts hymn, “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” 

They got to the second verse: “Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others sought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?”

Brother Hogan wept and remained true to his calling for more than sixty years.

My dad, who would sail through a few bloody seas himself as a pastor, wept when he told that story. 

And, so, I wept when Dee Romines sang it.

It’s a great hymn, by the way. Especially the second verse. If you can’t find it in your church hymnal, look it up at pdhymns.com.

Glenn Dromgoole is a Presbyterian elder and author of more than thirty books. He has a new book, The Christmas Spirit: A Celebration in Word and Song, coming out this fall. Glenn and his wife Carol own Texas Star Trading Company in downtown Abilene.