5 SEPTEMBER 1941, Page 4

The suggestion, made by a Times correspondent, that the hymn,

" Onward, Christian Soldiers," shall be generally sung in places of worship next Sunday has probably been acquies- cently adopted by too many incumbents to make it any use to express the hope that some congregations at least may be spared the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould's deplorable jingle. The hymn itself is the apotheosis of the obvious. So is the proposal to sing it on a Sunday when the outbreak of the war is being com- memorated. That commemoration, rightly considered, is a great occasion, and a great occasion deserves great hymns, which every standard hymn-book can supply in ample numbers. 3 I know the Prime Minister and President Roosevelt " Onward, Christian Soldiers " on the ' Prince of Wales of very different quality was the other they also sang, hymn founded on the psalm which John Hampden's solclito sang when they bore his body to the grave." That is the tiTt of hymn for next Sunday. The story of Archbishop (Frederd Temple and " The Church's One Foundation," is too had neyed for quotation. It would apply equally well to " Ormar4 Christian Soldiers." * *