Category: Christian Education

John Wilbur Chapman

by Terry Conley

(June 1859 – December 1918)

Chapman was born in Richmond, Indiana.  In his youth he attended a Quaker First Day School on Sunday mornings and the Grace Methodist Church Sunday School in the afternoons.  When he was seventeen his Sunday School teacher talked to him about Christ during an invitation time.  When the speaker asked for those making a confession of belief in Jesus Christ to stand, he said he stood with the rest and joined the local Presbyterian Church in September 1876.  He describes the incident as follows: “Mrs. Binkley put her hand under my elbow and I stood up with the others.  I do not know if this was the day of my conversion, but I do know it was the day of my acknowledgment of Christ.”  He left for Oberlin College (Ohio) later that year and in 1877 went on to Lake Forest University where he earned a B.A (1879).  From there he entered Lane Seminary (Ohio) graduating in 1882.  He was later awarded a D.D. degree by the University of Wooster (Ohio) and an LL.D. by Heidelberg University (Ohio).

It was at Lake Forest while studying for the ministry when his acknowledgment became acceptance.  He attended a Moody Crusade meeting in Chicago and he writes, “When the great evangelist, D. L. Moody, called for an after-meeting, I was one of the first to enter the room, and to my great joy, Mr. Moody came and sat down beside me.  I confessed that I was not quite sure that I was saved.”  Chapman goes on to say that Moody handed him his Bible and asked him to read John 5:24.  Moody asked him if he believed this verse.  Chapman said he thought about it and what it meant to him and then he said it all came to him with startling suddenness.  He said yes, without reservation, he believed what the Bible said.  He stated often that from that day he never questioned his salvation and relationship with God.

Chapman was ordained on April 13, 1881.  In 1882, he married Irene E. Steddon and they moved to their new ministry, a two-church field at Liberty, Indiana, and at College Corner, Ohio, ministering on alternating Sundays.  In May 1885 he became Pastor at the First Reformed Church of Albany, New York where he stayed until 1890.  During that time the membership increased by about 500 and attendance grew from approximately 150 to just more than 1,500 per Sunday.  Then came the call to Bethany Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia in January 1890.  It boasted the largest Sunday School of the world with the church and school plant seating capacity of 4,820. This was the church of John Wanamaker, wealthy Christian layman.  One of the members welcomed him: “You are not a very strong preacher, but a few of us have decided to gather and pray every Sunday morning for you.”  That prayer meeting grew to 1,000 participants before it was over.  He believed that the church needed some reviving, so he conducted his own revival soon after becoming the Pastor.  Approximately 400 new members were brought into the church, most on a profession of faith.  He worked to build the church into a strong spiritual and educational center that attracted hundreds.  As the church grew, requests for his evangelistic preaching grew.  Towards the end of 1892, he felt led to submit his resignation to Bethany because of numerous calls for his services.  This included being a preacher for the Moody World’s Fair evangelistic effort in Chicago.  Moody later hired him as a Vice President at the Chicago Bible Institute (Moody Bible Institute) but he had to turn down the offer of President due to his dedication to what he believed was his calling as a Pastor and Evangelist.

In December 1895, the Bethany Presbyterian Church congregation again extended a call for Chapman to come back home.  He accepted in 1896 and stayed for the next 3 years.  Under his preaching, Bethany became the largest Presbyterian Church in North America.

Chapman’s personal life was not an easy one.  The Chapmans’ first child, Bertha, was born on April 1, 1886.   That joy was cut short by the death of Mrs. Chapman just a month later.  Slightly confused and discouraged, he attended the 1886 summer Northfield, MA Conference where his life’s direction was changed.  He listened to F.B. Meyer speak and heard him say, “If you are not willing to give up everything for Christ, are you willing to be made willing?” Chapman later wrote, “That remark changed my whole ministry; it seemed like a new star in the sky of my life.”

In addition to his duties as a Pastor and Evangelist, Chapman was also involved with the development of Winona Lake Bible Conference in Indiana.  He later became the first director of the conference working as an active leader until his death. He became a leading proponent for the mass evangelism meetings that developed during this time and is credited with presenting the gospel to millions of people who made many thousand professions of salvation. In addition to his preaching and Pastoral duties, Chapman was appointed Corresponding Secretary of the Presbyterian General Assembly’s Committee on Evangelism in late 1895.  In this position, he was responsible for overseeing the activities of 51 evangelists in 470 cities.  In 1909 his attitude toward higher criticism was demonstrated in no uncertain terms as he demanded that all evangelists and missionaries who doubted the inerrancy of Scriptures be recalled at once.

In 1918 he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.  This additional responsibility inundated him with such a high level of stress that he developed a serious case of gall stones and needed emergency surgery on December 23, 1918.  He did not recover and died two days later, Christmas Day, aged 59.

The last sermon he preached before a large crowd was in November, 1918, at Carnegie Hall for the Prophetic Bible Conference.  He spoke on “Saved When the Lord Comes.” His last sermon to his church was preached December 15th and was “Christ, Our Only Hope”.  He was a gifted Pastor, Evangelist, and administrator.  No one up to that time had been an evangelist to as many people and nations as had Chapman.  It has been estimated that he preached 50,000+ sermons to more than a million people across the globe, with many thousands of professions of faith had been made.  He had never spared himself and suffered at least thirteen serious breakdowns in his health during the last 15 years of his life.  Illnesses and surgical operations laid him aside for extended periods of his life, but his only complaint was being away from his work.  When asked about this, his comment was, “I cannot ever recall any hesitation as to being a minister,” he said. “It just had to be.”

In fulfilling all these to the best of his ability, he should also be remembered for writing what I believe to be two of the greatest Gospel filled songs that continue to bless us, Our Great Savior and One Day, both published in 1911.

Who does not thrill to sing the following promise:

Our Great Savior:

Hallelujah!  What a Savior!

Hallelujah!  What a friend!

Saving, helping, keeping, loving,

He is with me to the end.

Bibliography

1. Wilber Chapman, A Biography, Ford C. Ottman, 1920, Doubleday, Page & Company

www.WholesomeWords.org

www.Wheaton.edu/bgc

 

 

William H. Doane

by Terry Conley

(February 1832 – December 1915)

Dr. William H. Doane was born in Preston, CT, the fifth of eight children of Joseph and Frances Doane.   His father was the head of Doane and Treat, cotton manufacturers.  He attended public schools and Woodstock Academy, a private secondary school affiliated with the Congregational Church in Woodstock, CT.  His musical talents were obvious, and he was selected as the school’s choir director.   Very early he was playing the flute, violin, double bass fiddle, and cabinet organ and at sixteen, he composed his first piece of music.  William was saved as a teenager in 1847 and later baptized by Rev. Frederic Denison, uniting with the Central Baptist Church in Norwich, CT.  On November 2, 1857, Doane married Mary Frances Treat, the daughter of his father’s business partner in the cotton manufacturing business.

He worked in his father’s business three years and in 1850 he took a position with the firm of J. A. Fay & Co., manufacturers of woodworking machinery, in Norwich, CT.  In 1860 he became the Managing Partner with headquarters in Cincinnati.  A short time later he was made President.  It was one of the most extensive businesses in its line with connections in many of the principal mercantile centers of the world. During his leadership, the company filed many patents for wood making machinery.  There were more than seventy patents registered in his name, giving him credit for the inventions.  Under his leadership the company won numerous accolades around the world, including at the Paris Exposition of 1889, where it was awarded the ‘Grand Prix’ and Doane was honored as a ‘Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.’

Doane emerged as a prominent figure in Cincinnati’s business and cultural life and his business skills extended beyond manufacturing.  He served as President of the Central Trust and Safe Deposit Company and as a Director of the Barney and Smith Car Company of Dayton, Ohio.  He was recognized for his achievements and was elected to ‘Fellow’ status in several professional organizations, including the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society of Mining Engineers, the American Geographical Society, and the American Society for the Advancement of Science.

Doane and his wife settled in Mt. Auburn, a Cincinnati, Ohio, suburb.  They joined the Mt. Auburn Baptist Church and became active members.  He served long tenures as the Superintendent of the Sunday School and choir director.  He was recognized as a denominational leader being appointed to lead the Ohio Baptist Convention Ministers Aid Society.  The church is located a short distance from the Doane family’s residence, Sunny Side.  Both the church and their residence are still in existence.  Sunny Side contained many reminders of Doane’s love of music.  The music room transom contains engraved opening strains of Home, Sweet Home.  Various musical items including paintings, drawings, and frescoes are located at points on the ceiling and along the walls.  He has also collected many antique instruments and music from around the world.  His prize piece was a grand pipe organ with four measures of the Hallelujah Chorus frescoed into the ceiling above.

Doane devoted himself to musical composition and many of his tunes are as familiar as the words to the poems.  In fact, if we hear just the first few bars, we will know the song they were written for.  He composed many thousand gospel hymns and songs, Sunday School and church songs, and many other songs, ballads, anthems, and cantatas.  He was a longtime collaborator of Fanny Crosby, having written music for an estimated 1,500 of Crosby’s poems but he also composed music for Lydia Baxter (Aletheia, December 2017) and Catherine Hankey (Aletheia, January 2018).

Among the well-known hymns for which the music was composed by Dr. Doane are:

Draw Me Nearer (Fanny Crosby)

I Am Thine, O Lord (Fanny Crosby)

More Love to Thee (Elizabeth Prentiss)

Near the Cross (Fanny Crosby)

Pass Me Not (Fanny Crosby)

Rescue the Perishing (Fanny Crosby)

Take the Name of Jesus with You (Lydia Baxter)

Tell Me the Old, Old Story (A. Catherine Hankey)

To God Be the Glory (Fanny Crosby)

To the Work! (Fanny Crosby)

Will Jesus Find Us Watching? (Fanny Crosby)

He became was a close friend of composer Rev. Robert Lowry, D.D. (Aletheia, June 2018) and together they published more than 40 hymn and song books.  They also compiled and edited The Gospel Hymn and Tune Book for the American Baptist Publication Society and Doane was one of the musical editors of  The Baptist Hymnal.

Doane was a very liberal man in the true sense of the word.  He and his wife generously supported Baptist Churches and institutions.  He was an important contributor to the Granville Academy, a school for boys preparing to enter Denison University.  Because of his ongoing support, which included funding to build conservatory buildings for music, art, and a gymnasium, the academy was renamed the Doane Academy in 1895.  At that time, Denison was a school with strong Baptist heritage.  On the Denison campus his name is on the Doane Administration building (1895), Doane Gymnasium (1905), William Howard Doane Library (1937) which was a gift of Doane’s daughters in their father’s memory, plus a pipe organ donated by Doane and located in the Library.  Today, the Doane Memorial Music Building continues to house the Music Department faculty, various music classes, and practice rooms for students.  In 1875, Denison University bestowed upon him the title of Doctor of Music.  His philanthropy also included Moody Bible Institute, several Baptist churches, the YMCA, the Fanny Doane Home for Missionary Children in Granville and many other religious and civic organizations.  His support for the Moody Bible Institute is memorialized in the Doane Memorial Music Building.

Dr. Doane is a vivid example that our Christian Life does not necessarily lead us to an “either-or” situation.  He demonstrated a remarkable range of talents and achievement throughout his lifetime. His musical gifts included performance abilities with several instruments, hymn and cantata composition, and choral direction. He showed astute business and financial skills which propelled him to the presidency of an important manufacturing company by the age of thirty-four.  His devotion to his Christian faith, local Baptist church, and its broader denominational interests was widely recognized.  It would be a difficult task to find an evangelized place that does not continue to be affected by the results of Dr. Doane’s love.

Doane died in South Orange, NJ, December 23, 1915 and is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.

 

Deeper Love

Deeper love, yes, deeper love,

This our constant plea;

Deeper love, yes, deeper love,

Till we’re lost in thee.

(Doane: Unpublished song)

 

Bibliography

Baptist Hymn Writers and Their Hymns, Henry S. Burrage, 1888

Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers, J. H. Hall, Fleming H. Revell Company, 1914

Men and Women of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries; L. R. Hamersly and Co., New York City, 1910

 

 

W.O. Cushing

by Terry Conley

(December 1823 – October 1902)

William Orcutt Cushing was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, a few miles south of Boston, December 31, 1823.  His parents were Unitarians but as he began to read the Bible and think for himself, he sensed his need of a Savior.  He left that group and joined a local Christian Church and later joined with the Wesleyan Methodist Church.  Throughout his adult life the assurance of God’s protection and care was something Cushing knew personally, wrote about, and preached about.

In his late teens as he read and studied his Bible, he began to believe that he had a call from God to the ministry and began studying for that.  After completing his education, he accepted the call to his first pastorate at Searsburg, N.Y which is located about 15 miles northwest of Ithaca.  While there he met, fell in love with, and married his wife, Miss Rena Proper.  They were married on February 4, 1854, and began planning for their future in God’s work.  By all accounts she proved to be a great help to him in his ministry as they served together in several churches located in the northwest area of New York state.  They were in the prime of their life and career, doing what they believed God had given them to do but it was during these years of faithful work that his wife’s health began to fail.  They returned to Searsburg, N.Y. where he again served as pastor for several years while taking care of his wife through her illness.  After a long period of illness, she died in July 1870.

But that was not the end of his challenges.  Soon after his wife’s death, a creeping paralysis began in his throat and vocal cords that left him unable to speak.  Not yet fifty years old when his disability began, and despite all that had transpired, Cushing did not give up on doing something for God.  His prayer became, “Lord, still give me something to do for Thee!”  He still believed in his heart that God had called him to some specific task and that in His own time, God would open that door for ministry.  Happily, for us, God did answer that prayer.  He did not remove the paralysis, but He opened the door to a whole new ministry that extended his influence for Christ in a way he could not have imagined.  With the answer God provided, he would reach not just hundreds or thousands, but millions of people into time far beyond his life-span.  He found that God had given him the ability to write songs and hymns.

Rev. Cushing eventually wrote more than 300 gospel songs many of which are still in use today.  Most, if not all, of his ideas came to him as he studied his Bible.  His first published song seems to be “Jewels” aka “When He Cometh.”  This song was written in 1856 and he noted that it was based upon Scripture he was reading in Malachi and Zechariah at the time.  He wrote the song for the Children’s Sunday School at the Searsburg Church.  His journal notes that “Ring the Bells of Heaven,” was written in 1866.  He noted that the song came to him one Sunday afternoon while listening to local church bells ringing out after a baptismal service.

“Hiding in Thee” was written in 1876 at the request of Ira Sankey who asked that Cushing write something to help in his preaching of the gospel.  Mr. Cushing wrote: “It must be said of this hymn that it was the outgrowth of many tears, many heart-conflicts, and soul-yearnings, of which the world can know nothing.  The history of many battles is behind it.”

Pastor Cushing always turned to the Psalms for comfort throughout his life and ministry and especially so during his wife’s illness and death.  He was encouraged by others as they preached sermons on familiar words and popular ideas such as “When God is There.”  But his experiences led him to consider those times when God seemed silent.  A few years after his wife’s death he was praying for direction, to know he was following Christ in all his life’s dealings.  He may have been wondering when he would hear a sermon on “How to find God in life’s valleys.”  As he considered these things, Cushing was inspired to write a gospel song that could have been his autobiography.  He thought of King David as he wrote in Psalm Twenty-Three, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Thou art with me.” His notes indicate that it was that verse, rather than the ones referring to the mountaintop meetings with God or the soaring up on the wings of eagles, that sustained him during his months of loneliness and adjustment.  He titled his song “Follow On“(1878).  The song is also known as “Down in the Valley” and Cushing later said that “it was written with prayer and the hope that some heart might by it be led to give up all for Christ.”

It may be true that we sometimes hear more sermons or lessons about all the positives that God wants us as His children to have and experience.  And there are times that God’s presence seems to be everywhere all around us actively blessing and directing other’s steps and lives.  From his experience, Cushing knew that God would lift him up above the shadows and trials of life.  He knew that as Christians, we are bound for a higher ground, but what about the times when He seems to be silent?  Once, emerging out of his own personal “valley of sorrow” undiscouraged and determined to serve God and make his “life count for Jesus,” the preacher began to write about the thoughts he believed God was giving him.  The resulting song, “Under His Wings (1896)” was based on the words he had read in Psalm 17:8, “Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me under the shadow of Your wings,” and Psalm 91:4 “He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust.”  His notes show that he was reflecting upon his experiences and of God’s strength and blessings that brought him through each trial.

At last, unable to support himself, Cushing spent the last several years of his life in the home of a friend, Rev. and Mrs. E. E. Curtis, Lisbon Center, N.Y.  But from the day he wrote “When He Cometh” as a young man of thirty-three until he wrote “Under His Wings” as a mature Christian of seventy-three, Rev. W. O. Cushing tried to do the “something” God had given him to do:  Songs of the promise of heaven;  Songs for a daily Christian life of strength, hope, love, faith, and perseverance.

 

Under His Wings

Under His wings I am safely abiding,

Though the night deepens

and tempests are wild,

Still I can trust Him;

I know He will keep me,

He has redeemed me, and I am His child.

 

 

Bibliography:

A Treasure of Hymns; Brief Biographies of 120 Leading Hymn-writers and Their best Hymns; Wells, Amos R.; Boston; W. A. Wilde company, 1945.

 

American Hymns Old and New; Hughes, Charles William; New York, Columbia University Press, 1980.

 

Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn writers; Hall, Jacob Henry; New York, AMS, 1914.

 

High Lights on Hymnists and Their Hymns; Goodenough, Caroline; New York, AMS Press, 1974; reprint of 1931 version.

 

My Life and Sacred Songs; Sankey, Ira D.; London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1906.

 

 

 

Joseph Lincoln Hall

by Terry Conley

(1866 – 1930)

Joseph Lincoln Hall, was born in Philadelphia on November 4, 1866.  He grew up with seven brothers and sisters in a home full of music.  His parents, Joseph M. and Barbara Hall, were well known and accomplished musicians.  He inherited his musical talent and fondness of music from them.  He attended the Philadelphia Public Schools and it was during this time that his interest in music became apparent.  When he was nineteen years old, he was appointed choir master of a choir of more than one hundred members, leading them for the next ten years.  In June 1896, he married Eva Wethington at the Methodist Midtown Parish in Philadelphia.  Hall also wrote and published under various pseudonyms which included Maurice A. Clifton, Alfred Judson, Clyde Willard, and Arthur Wilton.

Hall’s musical education was exceptional for the time and among his peers.  He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Music degree with High Honors in 1901.  This program was rigorous and among the first of a four-year degree in music offered by any of the major U.S. universities.  The work included thorough training in which he studied music theory and history.  This included the study of harmony, orchestration, counterpoint, and fugue.  As part of the graduation requirements, he composed a Mass in D minor, orchestrated for full orchestra.  The fact that Hall finished this degree at the age of 35, at a time when his publishing business was booming, is evidence of his determination to broaden his horizons.  He later received the honorary degree of Doctor of Music from Harriman University.  He was truly an educated musician and used that education to introduce the nation to gospel music.

Joseph grew up during the era of the great, modern revivals and revivalists.    It was during this time when many of the great gospel hymns, songs, and song leaders became dominant.  Homer Rodeheaver, who for 20 years led singing for the Billy Sunday revivals, had a formula.  He stated that to be successful a gospel song had to have: “a simple, easy, lilting melody which they (meaning the attendees) could learn the first time they heard it, and which they could whistle and sing wherever they might be.”  The next time you catch yourself whistling or humming one of those great old songs, remember to thank him for his part.

Hall is best remembered today for his gospel song composing and publishing through the Hall-Mack Company of Philadelphia.   He joined with Irvin H. Mack in founding that company in 1895.  Through this association, he became one of the leaders of a group of gospel song composers and writers in the Philadelphia area producing everything from an oratorio in the classic style to a simple gospel song.  He also became involved with the growing Camp Meeting and Bible Conference movement  that became popular during that time.  He was personal friends with such gospel music greats as C. Austin Miles, Eliza Hewitt, and William J. Kirkpatrick.  He was known for his classical church music as well writing dozens of cantatas and several volumes of anthems as he introduced the practice of arranging classical works by composers such as Beethoven, Verdi, Wagner, Dvorak, and Schubert to support the new gospel music.  As head of Hall-Mack Publishers, he was responsible for producing more than 400 hymns, anthems, and cantatas during his career along with editing and publishing 35 gospel hymn books.  Today, there are at least three of his compositions still in use, each with a wonderful message.  They are Does Jesus Care? by Frank Graeff, Glorius Freedom by Haldor Lilleanus, and I Belong to the King by Ida Reed.

Of all that he accomplished during his long career, he always said that the music he created in 1901 for Frank E. Graeff’s Sunday School song Does Jesus Care?, was his most inspired.  And I would have to agree.  If you don’t know this wonderful song, here is the refrain:

 

Oh, yes, He cares, I know He cares,

His heart is touched with my grief;

When the days are weary,

the long nights dreary,

I know my Savior cares.

 

Sources

Charles Gabriel, Gospel Songs and Their Writers

Jacob Henry (JH) Hall, Biography of Gospel Song & Hymn Writers

Patricia Woodard, The Hymn, Joseph Lincoln Hall: Gospel Song Composer, Editor, Publisher

www.Hymnnary.org

www.Wordwisehymns.com

 

 

Philip P Bliss

by Terry Conley

(1838 – 1876)

Philip P Bliss, a Pennsylvania farm boy, wrote some of the earliest and some of the greatest gospel songs that gained popularity in both America and Britain.  Bliss had minimal schooling and little formal music training, yet in the short span of 1864 to 1876, he wrote the words and music for many songs that still stir our heart.  Those include: Almost Persuaded, Free From the Law,  Hold the Fort, Hallelujah! What a Savior, It Is Well with My Soul, Jesus Loves Even Me, Let the Lower Lights Be Burning, Look and Live, The Light of the World is Jesus, Man of Sorrows What a Name, Once for All, Whosoever Will.  An interesting anecdote about his song, Wonderful Words of Life: “I carried that song through two seasons of evangelistic work, never thinking it possessed much merit, or that it had the element of special usefulness, particularly for solo purposes. It occurred to me to try it one day during the campaign in New Haven, CT, and, with the help of Mrs. Stebbins, we sang it as a duet. To our surprise the song was received with the greatest enthusiasm and from that time on to the close of the meetings was the favorite of all the hymns used.” [Bliss]

Bliss was born in a log cabin in Clearfield County, located in Northeast Pennsylvania, July 9, 1838.  His parents were “hard-scrabble” farmers and practicing Methodists who loved to sing.  That is where he first remembered singing and making music.  Their daily activity included family worship which included Bible reading, prayer, and praise.  As was fairly common for the time, Bliss left home early in his life to find work.  Through his teens into his early 20’s, he worked at various lumber camps and sawmills while attending school as he could.  Apparently, his early training at home was profitable for it was at the age of 12 that he made a profession of faith in Christ.  He was baptized in a creek near his home at Elk Run and joined Cherry Flats Baptist Church of Tioga County, Pennsylvania.  This church still meets today.

Despite little schooling, he was enlisted to teach school in Hartsville, New York, at age 18.  This was an early tribute to his character and seriousness of purpose.  The following winter of 1857 Bliss attended his first music convention in Rome, Pennsylvania, which furthered his deep love for music and strengthened his natural talent.  There, he met J.G. Towner, who was the father of hymn writer D. B. Towner, the composer.

The winter of 1858 found 20-year old Bliss teaching school in Almond, New York. There he fell in love with Lucy J. Young, and they were married June 1, 1859.

Bliss had a dream to attend the Normal Academy of Music in New York, but he lacked the means.  He later told the story of how he received the needed funds. His Grandma Allen told him she had been dropping coins into an old sock through the years.  Upon counting the coins, she found more than the required $30.  She gave this to Bliss and he completed the six-week course.  There he met the music leaders of the area, was able to have his questions answered, and to see and hear many new songs and music unveiled.  After Bliss completed the course, his father-in-law furthered his dream and bought him a $20 melodeon, a small, reed pump organ.  With the melodeon and his horse, his new career was started.  Income from teaching music allowed him freedom to attend other traveling music schools in 1861 and in 1863.

In 1869 a meeting with Dwight L. Moody changed his life forever.  This came as the result of Moody hearing Bliss sing in the congregation during the meetings Moody was holding at the Wood’s Museum Theatre at Clark and Randolph Streets in Chicago. Moody invited Bliss to sing at the theater meetings and he never ceased urging Bliss to full-time service of the Lord.  From Scotland, Moody sent letters: “You have not faith. If you haven’t faith of your own on this matter, start out on my faith. Launch out into the deep.”  Lucy Bliss replied: “I am willing that Mr. Bliss should do anything that we can be sure is the Lord’s will, and I can trust the Lord to provide for us, but I don’t want him to take such a step simply on Mr. Moody’s will.”

Bliss did accompany Moody’s friend, Major Daniel W. Whittle to a Sunday School Convention at Rockford, Illinois, in 1870.  It was there that he composed Hold the Fort, For I Am Coming. The song was based upon Whittle’s sermon illustration of an event during the Civil War Atlanta Campaign.  Moody’s campaign was successful as both Whittle and Bliss eventually became engaged with Moody and his campaigns.  The Blisses worked together providing music for the meetings with Whittle through the latter half of 1874 and 1875.  They spent their last year, 1876, with Moody and Whittle in meetings scattered around the Upper Mid-West and the Northeast.  They had also started discussing a Great Britain campaign with Moody and Sankey.

Philip and Lucy returned to Rome, PA, to be with their family for Christmas.    They had agreed to be in Chicago for the 1876 New Year’s Eve service at Moody’s Tabernacle and they were going to leave their children with the family.  Philip made a note that they had spent “the happiest Christmas he had ever known” with his mother, sister, and in-laws.  They checked their luggage through to Chicago and boarded the train at Waverly, New York.

The trip started in a heavy snow storm and one of the engines broke down shortly after the start.  They spent the night in a hotel before continuing their journey in the snowstorm.  The progress was slow but uneventful as both Blisses kept busy with their plans.  Survivors reported that as the train crossed a trestle not far from the station in Ashtabula, Ohio, they heard a terrible cracking sound.  The trestle had broken and the train plunged into the water below.  The wooden cars began burning from the kerosene heating stoves being used.  The lead engine made it across with the second engine, two express cars, and part of the baggage car resting with their weight on the bridge.  There were 159 passengers on the train; 92 were killed or died later of injuries and 67 survived.  It was the worst railroad tragedy to that point in American history.  Bliss was one of those thrown free but he was seen crawling back through a broken window to find his wife.  Nothing of Philip or Lucy Bliss was ever found.   The Blisses were survived by their two sons, George, age four, and Philip Paul, age one.  A monument to Bliss was later erected in Rome, Pennsylvania.

Even after his death, his ministry continued as his friends and associates completed some of his unfinished works.  One such friend was James McGranahan, a fellow composer and hymn writer.  He wrote music to words Bliss had written which were later found in one of the trunks sent on ahead.  The completed song was one of the first songs recorded by Edison on his new invention:

 

My Redeemer

Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer,

With His blood He purchased me,

On the cross He sealed my pardon,

Paid the debt, and made me free.

 

Amos R. Wells, A Treasury of Hymns

Henry S. Burrage, Baptist Hymn Writers and Their Hymns

1. H. Hall, Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers

 

Eliza Hewitt

by Terry Conley

Eliza Hewitt: (aka Lidie H. Edmunds)

(1851-1920)

Do we sometimes wonder of God’s purpose and plan for our life?  Is there a positive purpose in something that seems so negative?  Eliza Hewitt may have had just such a thought.

Eliza was born in Philadelphia and educated in the local school system.  She graduated as valedictorian of the Girl’s Normal School and became a teacher in the public schools.  That was her dream, to teach young lives and to be an encourager for them.

It seemed that her dreams were suddenly destroyed one day at school when a student hit her in the back with his slate.  It is not clear if this was accidentally or on purpose, but the damage was life changing.  She was confined to bed unable to move for six months.  She was a semi-invalid the rest of her life.  Lying in bed, Eliza had a choice.  She could have been bitter and unforgiving, but instead, she passed the time reading her Bible and English Literature.  She began writing poetry while recuperating and it was during this time that she wrote some of the most beautiful hymns found in our church hymn books today.  One of her first, “There’s Sunshine in My Soul Today”, was written on the warm Spring day after her doctor allowed her to go for a walk in a nearby park.  We have all sung “When We All Get To Heaven”, “More About Jesus Would I Know”, “My Faith Has Found a Resting Place”, and “Will There be Any Stars in My Crown?” She also became a prolific writer of children’s verses.  There is a list of over 1,700 hymns, songs, and poems she wrote located on the website, www.hymnary.org.

Her well-being improved although she suffered re-occurrences for the rest of her life.  She developed a love of God and the Scriptures and she continued with the hope of sharing this love with others in written form.  Eliza did not give up on her dream to reach young lives.  She was very committed to reaching children through Sunday School and her poems with the message of the Gospel.  She became deeply involved in Sunday School work and became the Sunday School Superintendent for the Northern Home for Friendless Children.  It was during this time that she wrote a poem titled “Winning Souls for Jesus.” This was one of the first, if not the first, of her poems, but it was never published.  It was placed in the corner stone of Tabernacle Presbyterian Church of West Philadelphia.  She also started writing “motion” songs for a friend to use in the primary grades in Sunday School.  If you have ever taught youngsters in Sunday School or Primary Church, you know what a blessing this type of song is.

She was an active member of the Mt. Olivet Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia and later at Calvin Presbyterian Church.  She was the Primary Department Sunday School Superintendent at that church until her death.  She also contributed to a publication, “Sunday School Helps” and gave talks entitled “Around the World on the Wings of Song” which were stories related to her by people telling of how God used her poems and hymns to help them.

Her plans seemed to fall apart but she allowed herself to be used as God desired, enriching our lives.  We are all the more blessed by her ability to teach and admonish us in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs that came out of her life.

 

“My Faith Has Found A Resting Place”

I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.

 

Sources:

Jacob H. Hall, Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers

Charles H. Gabriel, The Singers and Their Songs

www.hymnary.org

www.hymntime.com