“Battle Hymn of the Republic”
Julia Ward Howe (recorded by David Phelps)
Isaiah 63:1-6
Sing it knowing what it adds. Nothing in it is offered as scripture, and its pictures of judgment stay God's work. The sighting, a singer seeing that judgment happening now, is the hymn's own.✓ The judgment stays God's work. The hymn's “He” is God throughout and no source disputes it; Gamble's objection is to the use the hymn makes of the images, not to who does the treading
⚠ The opening line reports a present sighting of God's glory arriving. Isaiah 63 speaks of a day of vengeance but pins it to no date, so the timing is the hymn's addition
