Ira David Sankey

Evangelist and composer Ira David Sankey was born today in Edinburg, Pennsylvania (near the Ohio border) in 1840.  In his autobiography, he recounts how singing was a part of his life from his earliest memories:

"... it was one of my chief joys to meet with other members of our family around the great log fire in the old homestead, and spend the long winter evenings singing with them the good old hymns and tunes of the church, which was the only music we had in those days."                                                                                                        
Church attendance provided him with another place to sing, and by the time he was in high school he was leading the choir at a Methodist church in New Castle.  He campaigned for the installation of an organ, which had been considered "wicked and worldly" and eventually succeeded ("Only one or two of the old members left the church during the singing."). After he traveled to Ohio for a musical convention where he met composer William B. Bradbury, his father was unsure about his chosen occupation:

"I am afraid that boy will never amount to anything; all he does is run about the country with a hymn-book under his arm."

Following military service in the Civil War, Sankey returned home, married Fanny Edwards, a member of his choir, and joined his father working for the newly-established Internal Revenue Service, which may have temporarily assuaged his father's misgivings.  But Ira met evangelist Dwight Moody in 1870 at a YMCA convention in Indianapolis, and when he joined Moody's organization a few years later his subsequent career could have been characterized as "running about the world with a hymn-book under his arm!"  Sankey became the song leader for the internationally-acclaimed revivals that Moody led. Moody had recognized Sankey's talents immediately and knew that the power of congregational singing would be key to the success of his work.

They introduced gospel songs to millions over the course of their careers, believing that style was most conducive to their message. Sankey compiled the songs that they used into a popular series of hymn-books titled Gospel Hymns, and these volumes were later combined into one.  The profits from these books enabled Sankey to build a new YMCA building and to buy a lot for his church in his home town, among many other contributions.

Most of the songs used by Sankey and Moody were contemporary works, written and composed by popular names of the day such as Fanny Crosby, Philip P. Bliss, William Howard Doane, Lucy Rider Meyer, Robert Lowry, George C. Stebbins, and many others.  However, they also used older texts that would have been known to their audiences, often adding new tunes that were more in keeping with the music of their revival events (as the retuned hymns movement does today).  This eighteenth century text by Philip Doddridge (with additional stanzas added some years later by Augustus Montague Toplady) was sung to a new gospel tune (and with an added refrain) by Sankey.

Grace, ’tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to my ear;
Heaven with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.

Refrain:
Saved by grace alone!
This is all my plea;
Jesus died for humankind,
And Jesus died for me!

Grace first inscribed my name
In God’s eternal book;
’Twas grace that brought me to the Lamb,
Who all my sorrows took.
Refrain

Grace led my roving feet
To tread the heavenly road,
And new supplies each hour I meet,
While pressing on to God.
Refrain

Grace taught my soul to pray
And made my eyes o’erflow;
’Twas grace which kept me to this day,
And will not let me go.
Refrain

O let thy grace inspire
My soul with strength divine
May all my powers to thee aspire,
And all my days be thine.
Refrain

Philip Doddridge, 1740 (st. 1, 3, 5); alt.
Augustus Montague Toplady, 1776 (st. 2, 4); alt.
Tune: CHARMING GRACE (S. M. with refrain)
Ira David Sankey, 19th cent.

On YouTube you can see a video by a singer named Dave Willetts who portrays Sankey (alongside an unidentified actor as Moody) and leads a choir in some of his songs.

Seven Years Ago: Ira David Sankey

Five Years Ago: William Hiley Bathurst

Three Years Ago: William Hiley Bathurst

George C. Stebbins

Evangelist and gospel song composer George Coles Stebbins was born today in 1846 on a farm in upstate New York. He moved to Chicago as a young man and became the organist at the First Baptist Church in 1870.  While in Chicago he met Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey, as well as some of the other song writers that contributed to the Moody-Sankey revivals. 

Five years later he moved to Boston where he worked at more churches, including the Tremont Temple Baptist Church. When Stebbins encountered Dwight Moody again, the noted evangelist persuaded him to join the Moody-Sankey organization as a soloist, to lead the choir, and write songs, first in Chicago and later on various tours, traveling to Europe, India,  and the Middle East in addition to trips inside the US.  He was also one of the editors of Sankey's popular Gospel Hymns (first published in 1875 but proceeding through many subsequent editions) and other collections sponsored by Moody, including the Northfield Hymnal (1904).  He was also associated with YMCA conventions and other large religious gatherings where he led the music.

He retired from evangelistic work in 1908 when his hearing began to fail, but continued his composing and editing. In 1924 he published Reminiscences and Gospel Hymn Stories, a book containing biographical sketches of many of the song writers and composers he had worked with over his career.  He had composed tunes for most of the major text writers of the day, including (of course) Fanny Crosby.  Today's song is one of their collaborations (with an added stanza from me).

Gather them in! for yet there is room
At the feast that our God has spread;
O gather them in! let this house be filled,
And the hungry and poor be fed.

Refrain
Out in the highway, out in the byway,
Out to the far and the near,
Go forth, go forth, with a loving heart,
And gather the wanderers here!

Gather them in! for yet there is room
For the downtrodden in despair;
O gather them in! we will love them all;
For the outcasts a place prepare.
Refrain

Gather them in! for yet there is room;
’Tis a message from God above;
O gather them into the fold of grace,
And the arms of the Savior’s love.
Refrain

Fanny Crosby, 1883; alt.; st. 2 CWS, 2016
Tune: GATHER THEM IN (Irregular with refrain)
George C. Stebbins, 1883

Stebbins lived to the age of 99 and reportedly continued to compose songs nearly to the end of his life. His son, George Waring Stebbins (1869-1930), was also a musician and an organist in New York City, but composed far fewer works.

May Whittle Moody

Composer May Whittle Moody (March 20, 1870 - August 20, 1963) was a second-generation hymnist, the daughter of gospel songwriter Daniel Webster Whittle. Daniel Whittle was a friend of the evangelist Dwight Moody, and May attended the Northfield Seminary for Young Women, one of two schools founded by Moody in Northfield, Massachusetts. She went on to study music at Oberlin College and the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Returning to this country, she joined her father and Moody in their evangelistic work as a solo singer and she also began writing tunes for some of her father's texts. In 1894 she married Dwight Moody's son William, and they returned to Northfield, where William headed the schools founded by his father there.

This collaboration between father and daughter was one of their last. Daniel Whittle died the following spring, in 1901, and for the last year of his life he lived with May and her family.

They tell me the story of Jesus is old,

And they ask that we preach something new;

They say the example of Christ's loving care

For the wise of this world will not do.

Refrain

It can never grow old, it can never grow old,

Though a million times over the story is told;

While there is injustice and pain in the world,

The story of Jesus can never grow old.

Yet the story is old, as the sunlight is old,

Though it’s new every morn all the same;

As it floods all the world with its gladness and light,

Kindling faraway stars by its flame.

Refrain

For what can we tell to the weary of heart,

If we preach not salvation from sin?

And how can we comfort the souls that depart,

If we tell not how Christ rose again?

Refrain

So with sorrow we turn from the wise of this world,

To the wanderers far from the fold;

With hearts for the message they’ll join in our song,

That the story can never grow old.

Refrain

Daniel Whittle, 1900; alt.

Tune: ETERNAL STORY (Irregular with refrain)

May Whittle Moody, 1900

The Cyber Hymnal page for this song has a quote from 1 Corinthians 3:19 "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." If you've ever heard a discussion of using modern marketing techniques to bring people to church, this song might speak more directly to you.

In later years May also worked with Charles Alexander on the third edition of the Northfield Hymnal and after his death, produced the fourth revised edition herself in 1927.

Will L. Thompson

Hymn writer and composer William Lamartine Thompson was born today in 1847 in Smiths Ferry, Pennsylvania, but shortly thereafter his parents moved to East Liverpool, Ohio, where Thompson was to live for most of his life. He graduated from Mount Union College in nearby Alliance, continuing studies in music at the New England Conservatory of Music (not long after its founding by Eben Tour­jée, the father of hymn composer Lizzie Tour­jée), and later in Leipzig, Germany.

While still studying in Boston, Thompson wrote his first successful song, Gathering Up the Shells at the Seashore, inspired by an excursion to nearby Nahant Beach. While he went on to write many secular and patriotic songs, becoming known as “the Stephen Foster of Ohio,” he would become even better known for writing gospel songs.

Back in East Liverpool after his education, he encountered some obstacles to having his music published so he started the W.L. Thompson Music Company which published and sold sheet music and song collections in addition to selling musical instruments and other supplies. He later opened a similar successful company in Chicago.

Will Thompson wrote many gospel songs that appeared in various hymn and song books between 1875 and 1920. The Cyber Hymnal lists only a few that you can examine, and Hymnary.org lists many more, though only by title. One of his songs stands out above the others, loved and sung by millions. First published by Thompson in Sparkling Gems No. 1 & 2 (1880), it has since appeared in hundreds more collections.

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
Patiently Jesus is waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.

Refrain
Come home, come home,
You who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O wand'rer, come home!

Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,
Pleading for you and for me?
Why should we linger and heed not his mercies,
Mercies for you and for me?
Refrain

O for the wonderful love that is promised,
Promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, there is mercy and pardon,
Pardon for you and for me.
Refrain

Will L. Thompson, 1880; alt.
Tune: THOMPSON (11.7.11.7. with refrain)

You might also remember this song as sung by actress Geraldine Page in her Academy Award-winning performance in The Trip to Bountiful (1985). And if you haven't seen that film, you should.

One anecdote is told in nearly every account of Thompson's life. Evangelist Dwight Moody, who had traveled the world with singer and songwriter Ira Sankey, was on his deathbed when he learned that Thompson had called to see him. Insisting on seeing Thompson, Moody then told him that he would rather have written Softly and tenderly than any of his numerous other accomplishments in life.