Duty -- iii

It was a sense of duty that led Rev. Cornelius Van Schouwen into war. He was not a  kid--he was 39 years old, the dominie at DeMotte, Indiana, when he left. "I began to feel somewhat uncomfortable about enjoying the comforts of the parsonage." Ads appeared in the newspapers and The Banner--the war effort needed chaplains. 

"I discussed my thoughts with my wife and she said, 'If you think it is your God-given duty to become a chaplain, you must do it.'"

Duty is the operative word. Like so many millions of others, Cornie Van Schouwen felt deeply obliged to go to war for his country. It was his duty.

In December of 1942, he sent in an application, one year after Pearl Harbor. How did he assess what he was up against.

I am myself amazed that I remember the number, because the exercises I haven't forgotten come from my earliest days in Sunday School, in the old downtown Christian Reformed Church of Oostburg, Wisconsin, the town where I was born. I don't remember knowing--or owning--the fact that my grandfather was once the preacher in that church, so identity had less to do with my remembering what I do--that the old standard "Onward, Christian Soldiers" was my all-time favorite hymn, "number 449."

Before Sunday School would begin, a man named Harley would stand up front, choose a song, a hymn almost certainly, children's music maybe, and then open it up for favorites. Almost certainly some little boy or another would yell out "449." I just checked. That's the number (in the old red hymnal) of "Onward, Christian Soldiers." 

That hymn is so set in my mind that I still remember its number in the hymnal, sixty years ago and more. We loved it--we did. I can't help but think we loved it because boys my age grew up with dads who were in the recently ended Second World War. Even though I wasn't around when my dad was out in the South Pacific, the war was a present force, even in its absence. 

I can't begin to recollect the last time I sang that old favorite because its major metaphor has fallen out of favor. We don't sing "Onward, Christian Soldiers" because we don't like to think about war or cast it out front of our kids as a means by which to understand themselves and their world.

Rev. Van Schouwen got himself into the chaplaincy in the early months of 1943. Right about then, the war's Eastern front was bloody and terrifying. However, American troops weren't involved. Allied forces were preparing for beachheads in Italy and Sicily, but American bombers did the most of the fighting, ripping away at German manufacturing and infrastructure.

Fairly safe from the front lines, Chaplain Van writes sermons and delivers them, and sees literally hundreds of individual soldiers who come to him--or are sent--because of personal problems. 

His faith is a fortification all its own. He considers the "Onward, Christian Soldiers" the real stronghold for young men soon to go off to battle. 

"A Christian is a soldier of the cross and must be trained for combat with the enemy. His weapons are the Word of God with holiness, righteousness, and faith.

"The youth of the church must be trained for Christian warfare, and the church must be a place to drill the new recruits. Satan is the most powerful enemy Christians face from day to day. He is very deceitful and has been able to capture the greatest minds of the day."

I don't know that I ever requested it, but I loved it myself--"number 449."