“260: Who’s on the Lord’s Side?,” Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no. 260
Energetically
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
Now is the time to show.
We ask it fearlessly:
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
We wage no common war,
Cope with no common foe.
The enemy’s awake;
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
[Chorus]
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
Now is the time to show.
We ask it fearlessly:
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
We serve the living God,
And want his foes to know
That, if but few, we’re great;
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
We’re going on to win;
No fear must blanch the brow.
The Lord of Hosts is ours;
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
[Chorus]
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
Now is the time to show.
We ask it fearlessly:
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
The stone cut without hands
To fill the earth must grow.
Who’ll help to roll it on?
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
Our ensign to the world
Is floating proudly now.
No coward bears our flag;
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
[Chorus]
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
Now is the time to show.
We ask it fearlessly:
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
The pow’rs of earth and hell
In rage direct the blow
That’s aimed to crush the work;
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
Truth, life, and liberty,
Freedom from death and woe,
Are stakes we’re fighting for;
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
[Chorus]
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
Now is the time to show.
We ask it fearlessly:
Who’s on the Lord’s side? Who?
The Lord’s Side
I would like you to consider with me one of the great hymns of the Restoration: "Who's on the Lord's Side?" written by Hannah Last Cornaby, born in 1822 and an English convert to the Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]. The words of this hymn seem particularly attuned to our time and society. The hymn impressed me when I was a small boy in the Salt Lake City Thirty-third Ward. It apparently was our Sunday School chorister's favorite song; we seemed to sing it every Sunday. We young children would leave Sunday School singing, "Who's on the Lord's side? Who? Now is the time to show." The words and melody would stay in our minds after we sang it. In fact, I've never forgotten it or our chorister.
The words of the hymn echo the words of Moses as he called the rebellious children of Israel to repentance after he had destroyed the idolatrous calf they had made. "Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto me. . . . Consecrate yourselves to day to the Lord" (Exodus 32:26, 29).
Joshua, who succeeded Moses, told the children of Israel essentially the same thing after he had led them into their promised land of Canaan. Shortly before his death, he called the people of Israel together for a final blessing and warning, much as Moses had done. What a prophet says as he nears the end of his life is very important because he is concluding his accountability and placing the full responsibility for others' conduct on their own shoulders. Joshua reviewed with Israel exactly what God had done for them miraculously and then exhorted them to Choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. . . . And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. [Joshua 24:15,24]
We, too, must choose whether we will serve our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, or follow the gods of indulgence and sin that clamor for our attention on every side. The Lord has left no doubt in defining his side and where the Saints should be in their thoughts, words, actions, and practices. We have his counsel in the scriptures and in the words of the prophets. To ancient Israel, the Lord said through Moses: "I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil" (Deuteronomy 30:15). The Lord counseled his prophet Jeremiah to instruct the people: "Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death" (Jeremiah 21:8). That is the contrast; that is the choice. Either we are on the Lord's side of the line or on the side of the adversary. Nephi declared that we "are free to act for [ourselves]--to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life" (2 Nephi 10:23). Yes, Men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself. [2 Nephi 2:27]
The line between those who are on the Lord's side and those who follow the adversary has been with us from the beginning. Even before the creation of this world, the children of God divided themselves into two groups with different loyalties. One-third of the host of heaven followed Lucifer, separating themselves from the presence of God and from the two-thirds who followed the Son of God (see D&C 29:3639). This division has persisted throughout the history of mankind and will continue until the day of judgment when Jesus comes again in his glory. We read in Matthew that all nations will gather before him, and he will
Separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. . . .
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. [Matthew 25:3234, 41]
The prophet Nephi tells us why many choose the wrong side of the line:
Now the cause of this iniquity of the people was this--Satan had great power, unto the stirring up of the people to do all manner of iniquity, and to the puffing them up with pride, tempting them to seek for power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world. [3 Nephi 6:15]
Robert C. Oaks
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