Editorial: The Song That Refused to Die

Brutal times are not unique to any single century. In the hills of nineteenth-century Assam a Garo convert named Nokseng was ordered to recant. When he would not, the cost fell first on his children, then on his wife, and finally on himself. Centuries earlier, in the Colosseum of Rome, a sixteen-year-old Christian girl was given the same choice: deny Christ or die. She refused. Tradition remembers her calm resolve even as the sword was raised.

Yet the brutality is not the song.

What survived from Nokseng’s final stand was not a catalogue of violence but a clear, almost stark, declaration of direction: the cross before him, the world behind him, and no turning back. Those words were remembered among local believers and, over time, shaped into sung verse. They were set to an Indian folk melody later known as the tune “Assam.” Some traditions credit the Indian missionary Sadhu Sundar Singh with forming the testimony into a hymn. More recent research points to Simon Kara Marak (1877–1975), a Garo pastor, schoolteacher and missionary in the Jorhat area, who composed or regularised the song in the mid-to-late 1930s and sang it daily until it spread through his family and ministry.

For decades the hymn remained largely within Indian Christian circles. Its wider journey began when American hymn editor William Jensen Reynolds encountered it in the late 1950s, arranged the melody, and published it in the Assembly Songbook in 1959. Through Billy Graham’s crusades the song entered the mainstream repertoire of English-speaking churches and travelled across continents. Hymnals began printing it, often simply as “Anonymous” or “Traditional (Indian).” Additional stanzas were sometimes added, especially for use in baptismal and invitational settings.

Its power has always lain in the refusal to treat setbacks as the final word. Every life knows loss, pressure, disappointment, and the quiet temptation to reverse course. The hymn does not deny those realities. It simply places them behind the believer and fixes the eyes forward. The cross remains ahead. The decision remains in force.

That is why the song continues to be applied so widely. It is sung at baptisms and youth camps, in ordinary Sunday services and in places of open pressure. Persecuted believers have found in its refrain a concise statement of perseverance. Ordinary disciples facing quieter costs — family opposition, personal failure, weariness — have found the same steady direction: keep walking, do not turn back. Some traditions have valued its strong emphasis on personal resolve; others have noted the risk of sounding as though faith rests chiefly on human will. Yet the song endures, translated into many languages, still carrying the weight of that first irreversible choice.

What began as remembered words spoken under extreme pressure in a remote Garo village has become a shared confession for millions. The song is not a memorial to cruelty. It is a call to perseverance — steady, costly, and still available to anyone willing to keep the cross before them and refuse to turn back.

Editorial by David Daniel Ball Why is there no apparent justice over the assassinations and attempted assassinations of Trump, Kirk and other conservatives?

There is procedure. There are investigations, reports, suspensions, and in the case of Charlie Kirk a murder prosecution advancing through the courts. Yet the expectation of knowledge—clear motives, full accountability, transparent evidence, and decisive consequences—is repeatedly unmet. That gap is the problem. It leaves space for distrust and for theories that fill what official narratives leave incomplete.

The Secret Service failures surrounding Thomas Matthew Crooks’ attack on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on 13 July 2024 remain striking nearly two years later. Multiple official reviews, including the DHS Office of Inspector General and Senate Homeland Security reports, document communication breakdowns with local law enforcement, an unsecured rooftop with a known line of sight, missed drone surveillance by Crooks, resource shortfalls, and intelligence that never reached the protective detail in time. The FBI concluded Crooks acted alone. Motive stays murky. Accountability has been limited: the director resigned, six agents received short suspensions, and no one was fired for the core planning and operational failures. FOIA releases continue to arrive heavily redacted. The public is still waiting for the fuller picture that the seriousness of the event demanded.

Charlie Kirk was assassinated on 10 September 2025 at Utah Valley University. Tyler Robinson is in custody, charged with aggravated murder, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Evidence presented includes DNA, video, texts, and a note indicating he planned the attack because he had “had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred.” The case is proceeding. That is process. Whether it will deliver the sense of justice many expect remains to be seen as the trial unfolds.

An agent on Vice President Vance’s protective detail was identified after sharing sensitive details of the family’s life and travel. He was placed on leave and investigated. A second agent later faced scrutiny over alleged operational leaks. These breaches are real. They raise legitimate questions about personnel reliability inside the service charged with protecting the line of succession. They do not, by themselves, prove a broader plot, but they reinforce the sense that security around senior conservatives has been compromised in ways that receive insufficient public explanation.

Significant numbers of conservatives are unhappy with aspects of Vance’s stance on Israel. That political disagreement is not commensurate with any apparent attempt on his life or his family. Treating policy disagreement as if it explains violence confuses the two.

History is instructive precisely because past cases were not handled in ways that satisfied the demand for complete knowledge. Lincoln’s assassination involved a conspiracy; the man who succeeded is remembered, while the fuller scope and the trials that followed left later generations still arguing over details. In the case of JFK, unofficial investigators have substantiated the view that Lee Harvey Oswald was innocent and framed, and that the official narrative obscured other culprits. The Warren Commission’s lone-gunman conclusion has never closed the matter for those who examined the evidence independently; questions about the Secret Service’s performance that day and about possible broader involvement have persisted for decades. Character assassination of Nixon, and the myths that grew around it, further illustrate how official and media accounts can diverge from fuller facts. With Reagan, and again with the attempts on Trump, media framing often reduced the attackers to the category of the dangerous and the stupid. That same style of rhetoric—portraying conservatives as existential threats or moral monsters—helped create a climate in which violence against figures such as Kirk became thinkable. The existence of that rhetoric is well documented. It should not be overstated into a proven, direct causal chain for any single act; individual perpetrators still choose. But neither should it be dismissed as irrelevant to the atmosphere in which these events occur.

Perhaps Iran, China, or other actors would prefer Vance or other conservatives dead. Perhaps some voices that loudly blame Israel are themselves advancing someone else’s interest. Speculation of that kind does not answer the concrete questions that remain: why so little definitive public knowledge still exists about Crooks’ full digital record and the precise sequence of Secret Service inactivity on the day he nearly killed Trump; why key failures produced such limited personal consequences; and why compromised agents on a vice-presidential detail surface with regularity. Procedure without transparent knowledge is not justice. Until the gaps are closed with evidence rather than redactions and restrained discipline, the sense that justice has been incomplete will continue—and with it the suspicion that more remains hidden than has been shown.

A Short Teaching on the Power of Intercessory Prayer

Shalom, shalom.

Brothers and sisters, let me give a short teaching on the importance of praying — not only for our church, but especially for those who are far from God and whose lives are currently marked by greed and personal aggrandisement.

It is our duty to pray. No one else will do this for us in the same way the people of God can. We are called to stand in the gap.

1 Corinthians 15:58 says: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

When we rise to pray — even at midnight — we are proving that we are giving ourselves fully to the work of God. Prayer is not optional for the body of Christ; it is part of our calling.

1 Corinthians 12:27 reminds us: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

As members of His body we carry a mandate to intercede. We intercede for the church, for our leaders, and also for those outside the walls whose lives are being shaped by greed and the desire for personal aggrandisement. We want them to stop. But more than that, we want them to turn to God and begin to live the kind of life God designed for them — a life of purpose, freedom, and the genuine highs that only come from walking in righteousness.

Scripture is clear about God’s heart for the lost and the wayward:

• “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live” (Ezekiel 18:23).
• “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise… He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
• Jesus told the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15) to show that the Father runs toward the one who turns back.
• “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

We do not pray only that the destructive patterns stop. We pray that hearts are changed, that the Holy Spirit convicts, that these young men encounter the living God and discover the joy, peace, and lasting satisfaction that only a life surrendered to Christ can give.

As we pray tonight, we will ask God specifically:

• To continue giving us strength and faithfulness to keep interceding and worshipping Him.
• To revive any among us who are backsliding or discouraged, and draw them back into fellowship.
• To draw new people into the church so that we become a mighty army for the Kingdom.
• And, with special urgency, to reach the older boys caught in greed and personal aggrandisement: – Soften their hearts. – Break the power of self-seeking and destructive ambition in their lives. – Bring them to genuine repentance. – Turn them toward Jesus so they may experience the freedom and joy of a virtuous life lived for God.

If you are short of words, simply declare these things in faith:

Lord, remove every barrier that keeps people from coming to worship You, in Jesus’ name.

Father, strengthen our leaders with Your mighty power, according to Isaiah 40:29.

We declare that our leaders will not grow weary or give up, according to Galatians 6:9.

Lord, protect our leaders from every attack of the enemy. Cover them with the blood of Jesus. May those who seek to destroy them be put to shame, according to Isaiah 54:17.

And Father, we lift up the older boys whose lives are driven by greed and personal aggrandisement. Convict them by Your Spirit. Break those patterns. Draw them to Yourself. Give them a new heart and a new spirit. Let them taste the goodness of a life walked with You — the true highs of righteousness, peace, and purpose. Save them, transform them, and use them for Your glory.

We give God the glory. Who are we to pray for the church of God and for those still far from Him? Yet He invites us to come. So we come. We stand. We intercede.

Amen.