Knowles Shaw

Today is the birthday of evangelist and gospel song writer Knowles Shaw, born near New London, Ohio.  He began to play the violin at the age of ten (the instrument was given to him by his dying father), and eventually played at public dances.  One story claims that his conversion to Christianity happened suddenly, in the middle of a dance, and he immediately stopped the song he was playing and left the building.

Shaw was baptized in the Churches of Christ in 1852, and over the next few years he married and started a family, initially supporting them by working as a farmhand. In 1858 he was first asked to speak in a worship service, and before long his gifts for speaking and music would lead to the career he would follow for the rest of his life.

He became known as the "Singing Evangelist," traveling around the western and southern United States leading revival meetings.  During the day he would introduce himself around town, inviting people to the meeting that night, which he would begin by leading about a half hour of congregational singing, followed by delivering a sermon, and sometimes baptizing several people. Estimates of the number of persons he baptized range from 11,000 to 20,000, depending on which source you read.

He also turned his musical skills and scriptural knowledge to the writing and publishing of gospel songs (sometimes the words, sometimes the music, often both) which he then introduced in his meetings (much like his contemporary Ira Sankey).  Between 1868 and 1878 he brought out five songbooks, largely made up of his own songs, including Sparkling Jewels (1871), The Golden Gate (1874) and The Morning Star (1877).

In looking at the writers of hymns and songs from previous generations, it's always a bit remarkable to encounter someone who wrote dozens and dozens of songs, and yet only one of those remains known today. This song by Shaw soon became his most popular, while the dozens of others faded away. The online hymn sites only list a fraction of his work, apparently not having thoroughly mined his five collections.

Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,
Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;
Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Refrain
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,
Fearing neither clouds nor winter’s chilling breeze;
By and by the harvest, and the labor ended,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Refrain

Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Savior,
Though the loss sustained our spirit often grieves;
When our weeping’s over, Christ will bid us welcome,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Refrain

Knowles Shaw, 1874; alt.
Tune: BRINGING IN THE SHEAVES (6.6.6.5. with refrain)
George Minor, 1880

When this song was first published in The Golden Gate (it was #9, if you want to check the link above) Shaw had written both text and tune, but that tune was replaced by another after Shaw's death. 

On June 7, 1878, Shaw was traveling by train to McKinney, Texas when the train derailed.  He died saving the life of another passenger. The Reverend William Baxter, also associated with the Churches of Christ, wrote The Life of Knowles Shaw, the Singing Evangelist (1879).

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.

Philip P. Bliss

Gospel songwriter Philip Paul Bliss was born today in Pennsylvania in 1838. There are some accounts which claim that he really had no middle name; that his name was originally Philipp, and he decided to spell it differently by making the second "p" into a middle initial, but most modern sources believe that Paul was his true middle name.

He grew up in farm country, where he went to work in that profession as a boy of thirteen. He had little or no opportunity for exposure to music, but he did attend school as much as possible, in addition to work, and by age eighteen he was teaching school. Shortly after that, he met Lucy Jane Young and they were married in 1859. Lucy sang in her church choir and had received some musical education, and she encouraged his modest interest in music. Over the next few years he studied music more formally and discovered a talent for songwriting.

His first published (secular) song was Lora Vale, which was brought out by George Root's company. This new career avenue was very nearly delayed when he was drafted into the Union Army, in the spring of 1865, but as the Civil War was coming to an end the order was rescinded after two weeks. The following year Philip and Lucy moved to Chicago, where he went to work for Root's publishing house conducting singing schools and musical conventions, and continued to write secular and humorous songs, some under the pseudonym of Pro Phundo Basso.

In 1870 Bliss became both the choir director and Sunday school superintendent at the First Congregational Church of Chicago. Around this time he began to write Sunday School songs, and compiled the songbook The Charm in 1871, which included several of these songs. Over the next two years, he published three more collections.

In 1874 he joined Ira Sankey and Dwight Moody in their evangelical meetings as a song leader and soloist, and also began writing songs for their meetings. George Stebbins, in his Reminiscences and Gospel Hymn Stories (1924), recalled:

He had a voice of rare quality and splendid volume, a baritone of extraordinary range and evenness throughout... As a leader he occupied a position of prominence by reason of native gifts and years of enterience, which, combined with an impressive personality (he was six feet tall and of commanding stature, with features as perfect as form, and eyes that were large and kindly in expression), made him into the great leader of evangelistic song that he was.

In 1874 Bliss collaborated with Ira Sankey on the first volume of Gospel Songs, which contained this song which is still sung today.

Sing them over again to me,
Wonderful words of life,
Let me more of their beauty see,
Wonderful words of life;
Words of life and beauty,
Teach me faith and duty.

Refrain
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life,
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life.

Christ, the blessèd One, gives to all
Wonderful words of life;
We will list to the loving call,
Wonderful words of life;
All so freely given,
Wooing us to heaven.
Refrain

Sweetly echo the gospel call,
Wonderful words of life;
Offer pardon and peace to all,
Wonderful words of life;
Jesus, only Savior,
Sanctify forever.
Refrain

Philip P. Bliss, 1874; alt.
Tune: WONDERFUL WORDS OF LIFE (8.6.8.6.6.6. with refrain)

During the next two years, Bliss wrote several more gospel songs (sometimes both words and music, sometimes collaborating with others), including the well-loved tune VILLE DU HAVRE for Horatio Spafford's text It is well with my soul. However, on December 29, 1876, Philip and his wife Lucy were killed in a horrific train accident in Ashtabula, Ohio while traveling back to Chicago from spending Christmas in Pennsylvania. He was reported to have escaped the crash, but returned to the burning train car to rescue her. The victims of the wreck were burned beyond recognition and were buried in a common grave in Ashtabula.

Friend and fellow songwriter Daniel Webster Whittle compiled the Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss, a brief biography which included testimonials from many friends and collaborators, which was sold to benefit the two young sons of Philip and Lucy, only two and four years old at the time of their parents' deaths. Many of Bliss's contemporaries believed that he would have become even more accomplished and popular as a songwriter had he lived to write for thirty more years.

Today, the Philip P. Bliss Gospel Songwriters Museum in Rome, Pennsylvania in their former family home (picture below), honors the legacy of the man and his work. Northeastern PA is not so far away from me, so it may be that a visit is in order at some point.

Three Years Ago: Henry J. Gauntlett

Two Years Ago: Henry J. Gauntlett

Hymn(al)s in the News

This news story is a few weeks old now, but you might not have heard it yet. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture is scheduled to open in Washington DC in five years. They have been collecting historical artifacts for some time (the regular Smithsonian holdings already contain many). One acquisition of interest here was recently spotlighted in a piece on National Public Radio: a hymn book that belonged to Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman (1820? - 1913) is known primarily for her frequent trips to the south to rescue people from slavery through the Underground Railroad. Following her own escape from Maryland in 1849, she returned and brought back several members of her family, then numerous others, a few at a time. In all she may have released as many as three hundred former slaves (sources vary as to the number of her trips and the number of slaves freed), and was popularly known as the "Moses" of her people. During the Civil War she was a scout and a spy for the Union Army, and in her later years she also became an advocate for women's rights.

According to the NPR article, Tubman and the other Underground Railroad workers sometimes used African-American spirituals as signals (though other sources dispute this). These songs were part of a long-standing oral tradition, not written down until later in the nineteenth century, thanks to the efforts of people like James W. Work and Harry Burleigh. Though Steal away to Jesus and Swing low, sweet chariot do not appear in the book that belonged to Tubman (Gospel Hymns No. 2, edited by Ira Sankey), she certainly didn't need the book to sing them.

Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home,
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.

I looked over Jordan, and what did I see?
Coming for to carry me home,
A band of angels coming after me,
Coming for to carry me home.
Refrain

If you get there before I do,
Coming for to carry me home,
Tell all my friends I’m coming, too.
Coming for to carry me home.
Refrain

I’m sometimes up and sometimes down,
Coming for to carry me home,
But still my soul feels heavenly bound,
Coming for to carry me home.
Refrain

African-American spiritual, 19th cent.
Tune: SWING LOW (Irregular with refrain)

The chariot mentioned would seem to be the one that took the prophet Elijah to heaven in 2 Kings 2:11. This spiritual was part of the repertory of the Fisk Jubilee Singers and appeared in one of their collections as early as 1873.

Harriet Tubman is the woman on the left in the photograph below which appeared in the New York Times in the 1880s, though it was probably taken about twenty years earlier. Members of her family and others in the photo who she brought back from the south: (left to right) Gertie Davis {Watson} (adopted daughter of Tubman} behind Tubman; Nelson Davis (husband and veteran); Lee Cheney (great-great-niece); "Pop" {John} Alexander; Walter Green; Blind "Aunty" Sarah Parker; Dora Stewart (great-niece and granddaughter of Tubman's brother Robert Ross aka John Stewart). [Note: Dora Stewart is sometimes cropped out of other versions of this photograph]

Thanks to the Hymn Society's Facebook page for pointing me to this article. I'm debating whether to join the blog to Facebook, which might bring more readers here, but haven't made a decision yet.

Horatius Bonar

Today is the 201st birthday of Horatius Bonar, the most well-known of Scottish hymnwriters. He was born in Edinburgh, where he lived much of his life and died in 1889. Though he was ordained in the state Church of Scotland 1n 1838, five years later he left with a number of other pastors who formed the Free Church of Scotland, a new denomination.

He wrote and published articles in church journals, books of theology, and approximately 600 hymns. Ironically, for many years the Free Church of Scotland only authorized the singing of psalm paraphrases in worship, so other churches sang his hymns long before he and his own congregation.

Like Cecil Frances Alexander in Ireland, he began writing hymns for children to explain theology in a simple way, but not expecting them to be used in formal services. His own hymns were published in several volumes, and he also compiled The Bible Hymn-Book (1845) from many writers. He also was a great admirer of the gospel songs used by Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey in their evangelical crusade meetings, and wrote some for their use.

Some of his hymns are still known and sung in different denominations, and have been presented here. This particular one, first published in his collection Hymns of Faith and Hope (1866) is not widely known, but I think deserves to be. The tune I've chosen may be one I've dismissed on occasion, but it suits these joyful words.

Fill thou my life, O Living God,
In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy being and thy ways.
Not for the joy of praise alone,
Nor e’en the praising heart
I ask, but for a life made up
Of praise in every part!

Praise in the common words I speak,
Life’s common looks and tones,
In fellowship in hearth and home
With my belovèd ones;
Not in the temple crowd alone
Where holy voices chime,
But in the silent paths of earth,
The quiet rooms of time.

Fill every part of me with praise;
Let all my being speak
Of thee and of thy love, O God,
Poor though I be, and weak.
So shalt thou, God, from me, e’en me,
Receive the glory due;
And so shall I begin on earth
The song forever new.

So shall each fear, each fret, each care
Be turned into a song,
And every winding of the way
The echo shall prolong;
So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free;
But all my life, in every step
Be harmony with thee.

Horatius Bonar, 1866, alt.
Tune: ELLACOMBE (C.M.D.)
Württemberg Gesangbuch, 1774;
adapt. William H. Monk, 1868

Much later in life, Bonar changed his opinion on singing hymns in church and allowed some of his texts to be sung by his congregation. This was still a controversial decision; two elders of his church reportedly walked out when they were sung, and he was also sharply criticized in The Signal, a Free Church journal.

Bonar's wife, Jane Lundie Bonar, also wrote some hymns, but only one of them (Fade, fade, each earthly joy) was much known and sung.

More Voices Found: Jane Fox Crewdson

This year is the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of poet Jane Fox Crewdson. She was born in Cornwall in October 1809, but the exact date went unrecorded, so I'm marking the date of her death in 1863. Like several other women poets and hymnwriters, she suffered from poor health, and was an invalid for many years. Very little more is known about her, unfortunately. Her poetry was published in at least four collections, and the most popular of these was Aunt Jane's Verses for Children (1851) which is still in print today. Several of her poems were later published as hymns.

It may be that during the Moody and Sankey evangelistic crusade to England in the 1870s that Ira Sankey encountered Crewdson's verse. He wrote tunes for at least two of her texts, including this one.

I’ve found a joy in sorrow, a tender balm for pain,
A beautiful tomorrow of sunshine after rain;
I’ve found a branch of healing near every bitter spring;
A whispered promise stealing o’er every broken string,
A whispered promise stealing o’er every broken string.

I’ve found a glad hosanna for every woe and wail;
A handful of sweet manna when earthly strength may fail;
I’ve found a Rock of Ages when desert wells are dry;
And, after weary stages, I’ve found a solace nigh,
And, after weary stages, I’ve found a solace nigh.

I rest within its coolness, its fountains, and its shade;
With blessing in its fullness, when buds of promise fade;
And o'er this recognition there shines a rainbow light,
A glory and fruition, so near! yet out of sight,
A glory and fruition, so near! yet out of sight.

My Savior, thee possessing, I have the joy, the balm,
The healing and the blessing, the sunshine and the psalm;
The promise for the fearful, the solace for the faint,
The rainbow for the tearful, the glory for the saint!
The rainbow for the tearful, the glory for the saint!

Jane Fox Crewdson, 1864; alt.
Tune: CREWDSON (7.6.7.6.7.6.7.6.7.6.)
Ira D, Sankey, 19th cent.

One Year Ago: Jesus Christ, eternal Savior

Ira David Sankey

Today is the birthday of Ira David Sankey (August 27, 1840 - August 13, 1908), known in his time as the "sweet singer of Methodism" to millions around the world. He grew up in rural Pennsylvania, developing his musical talents from an early age. He became active in the Methodist Episcopal Church as a Sunday School leader and choir director. He enlisted in the army just before the Civil War, and organized a choir in his Maryland regiment, also helping the chaplain in services by leading the songs.

Following the war, he joined his father in the Internal Revenue Department, but also volunteered with the YMCA and continued to gain popularity as a song leader thoroughout Pennsylvania and Ohio. It was during the international YMCA conference in Indianapolis in 1870 that he met the evangelist Dwight L. Moody, when he spontaneously led a hymn (There is a fountain filled with blood) during a Baptist service conducted by Moody.

The following day, Moody arranged for them to meet on a street corner, where he asked Sankey to sing Am I a soldier of the cross. A crowd soon gathered, and Moody began to preach, then announced that the service would be continued at the nearby Opera House. The assembly followed the two men down the street, singing Shall we gather at the river. Moody had already recognized Sankey's potential and insisted that he join the crusade.

Sankey eventually agreed, and the two men worked together for more than twenty-five years, bringing their traveling crusade all over the US, to Canada, Mexico, England and Scotland. In their time, they were as well known and popular as Billy Graham would be in the twentieth century, and they did it without the mass media of radio and television.

Sankey began to write his own tunes for the songs Moody wanted to use in their services, and all the gospel songwriters of the day wanted to work with him. Any song used in the Moody-Sankey services would immediately become known to thousands of people. Gospel songs became popularly known as "Sankey songs," even ones he hadn't written. Sankey compiled several collections of hymns and songs which were huge best sellers and the income from these books went to several charitable ventures supported by Moody and Sankey.

Ira Sankey wrote dozens of tunes, many of which survived into the twentieth century and some even to the present. Perhaps the most popular was The Ninety and Nine, which was reportedly improvised on the spot during a service in 1874, where he hoped he could remember what he had played before as he went through the verses. You can hear Sankey himself singing this song at this page.

Later in life, Sankey was the president of the Biglow & Main Company, perhaps the most prominent publisher of gospel songs, where he continued to work with gospel songwriters, This song from that period, its theme taken from Psalm 17:6 (Hide me under the shadow of thy wings), is still sung and remembered by many.

Under your wings I am safely abiding,
Though the night deepens and tempests are wild,
Still I can trust you; I know you will keep me,
You have redeemed me, and I am your child.

Refrain
Under your wings, under your wings,
Who from your love can sever?
Under your wings my soul shall abide,
Safely abide forever.

Under your wings, what a refuge in sorrow!
How the heart yearningly turns to its rest!
Often when earth has no balm for my healing,
There I find comfort, and there I am blessed.
Refrain

Under your wings, oh, what precious enjoyment!
There will I hide till life’s trials are o’er;
Sheltered, protected, no evil can harm me,
Resting in Jesus, I’m safe evermore.
Refrain

William O. Cushing, 1896; alt.
Tune: UNDER HIS WINGS (11.10.11.10. with refrain)
Ira D. Sankey, 1896

Sankey's autobiography appeared in 1906, having been dictated from memory when the original manuscript was lost in a 1901 fire. During the last five years his life, Sankey was blind. He lived in Brooklyn at the time, and he and his old friend Fanny Crosby would sit together, singing and praying.

One of Sankey's sons, Ira Allan Sankey, also wrote tunes for gospel songs and succeeded his father at Biglow & Main. Sankey's songbooks remained in print for many years after his death in 1908.