User:The C of E/Follow Follow

Follow On, also known as Down In The Valley With My Saviour I Would Go, is a Christian hymn written in 1878 by William O. Cushing with the music for it being written in 1880 by Robert Lowry and W. Howard Doane.

History
The hymn was originally written as a Baptist hymn. The hymn also is used by the Salvation Army. The hymn's lyrics are based on Hosea 6:3. Then we shall know, If we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth

Cushing once said about what inspired him to write it was “Long­ing to give up all for Christ who had giv­en his life for me, I want­ed to be will­ing to lay ev­er­ything at his feet, with no wish but to do his will, to live hence­forth on­ly for his glo­ry. Out of this feel­ing came the hymn, ‘Fol­low On.’ It was writ­ten with the pray­er and the hope that some heart might by it be led to give up all for Christ. Much of the pow­er and use­ful­ness of the hymn, how­ev­er, are due to Mr. Low­ry, who put it in­to song.”

Present day
In the current day, the hymn's music has been adopted as the music of the anthem of the Scottish association football club, Rangers in their anthem, Follow Follow. There have been disagreements over Rangers fan's usage of the hymn's music as their anthem with claims such as from the Boy's Brigade complaining that using it and changing the words prevented it from remaining a major hymn because of the association with Rangers. The original hymn was sung at their Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow on 3rd of January 2011 at a memorial service for the sixty-six victims of the 1971 Ibrox disaster and their families and friends.