George Duffield Jr.

George Duffield Jr. was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on September 12, 1818, into a prominent Presbyterian ministerial family. He graduated from Yale College in 1837 and Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1840, then served Presbyterian congregations in Brooklyn, Bloomfield, Philadelphia, Adrian, Galesburg, Saginaw, Ann Arbor, and Lansing. His ministry combined pastoral work, evangelism, hymn writing, and active participation in nineteenth-century American Protestant life.

Duffield wrote “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus” in April 1858 after the death of his friend Dudley Atkins Tyng, an Episcopal clergyman involved in Philadelphia’s revival movement. Tyng had been seriously injured when his arm was caught in farm machinery and died on April 19. Contemporary memorial literature preserved his appeal that fellow ministers should stand up for Jesus. On April 25, Duffield preached from Ephesians 6 and concluded by reading his new six-stanza hymn.

The text circulated first in leaflet form and entered hymnals soon afterward. Duffield wrote other hymns, including “Blessed Savior, Thee I Love,” but this memorial hymn became his most enduring contribution. He died in Bloomfield, New Jersey, on July 6, 1888.