Way of Life: Samuel Medley (1738-1799) was a Baptist pastor and author of 230 hymns. In his wayward youth, he was seriously wounded in the British navy at the Battle of Lagos. The surgeon told him that amputation was the only thing that would save his life and that a decision would have to be made the next day. Though Medley Read more...
Author: Grace Greater than All Our Sin I have partly learned some of my lessons, Some others but dimly I see; I was ever, I think, a slow learner: My Teacher is patient with me; So patient and tender and loving, So gentle and kindly His rule, I care not how simple my lessons, If they are but taught Read more...
Author: Sweet Sweet Spirit “Her music was a special gift, and she gave God all the glory for it. It wasn’t her, it was God that put that gift into her possession.” Rev. Willa Grant Battle, Founding Pastor of Grace Temple Deliverance Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota Born in Brookfield, Missouri, on May 21, 1923, Doris Mae “Dot/Doe” Akers Read more...
Author: I Will Sing the Wondrous Story What do slaughterhouses in Massachusetts have to do with the hymn “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story?” One man. A Baptist pastor. Francis Harold Rowley. Born in 1854, Francis was the son of a medical doctor. He accomplished his preliminary education at the Wilson Preparatory School in Rochester, New York, before graduating Read more...
Author: I Am Resolved Palmer Hartsough was born in Redford, Michigan, on May 7, 1844, to Wells and Thankfull Barnes Palmer Hartsough. Named in honor of his mother’s maiden name, Palmer was raised in a Christian home – his father was very active in the fledgling Michigan Baptist Convention (established in 1836). Palmer attended both the Michigan State Normal Read more...
Author: Trust and Obey If you turn into the main entrance of Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, and make your way east on Westminster Road, you’ll pass the grave of Red Skelton and Elizabeth Taylor. Just after the final resting place of these two famous people is “Section L” – the portion of the cemetery that houses Read more...
Publisher: Go Tell It on the Mountain The fact that we sing “Go Tell It on the Mountain” every Christmas is really a credit to the tenacity of John Wesley Work Jr., a former professor of Latin, Greek, and History at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. In fact, C. Michael Hawn says bluntly: “’Go, tell it on the mountain’ Read more...
Author: The Love of God Were all the skies parchment, And all the reeds pens, and all the oceans ink, And all who dwell on earth scribes, God’s grandeur could not be told. Rabbi Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai Frederick Martin Lehman was born in Schwerin, Germany – a town east of Hamburg about 70 miles and just south Read more...
Author: The Solid Rock/My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less “My Sabbaths were spent in the streets at play. So ignorant was I that I did not know there was a God.” If there ever was a person that could hide behind their upbringing and excuse their godlessness, it was Edward Mote. Born to tavern owners on January 21, Read more...
Author: Jesus Loves Me “You have rendered a real and patriotic service, and on behalf of all our people I desire to express our obligation and our appreciation.” (President Theodore Roosevelt in a letter to Anna Bartlett Warner) Anna Bartlett Warner was born on August 31, 1827, to Henry and Anna Warner on Long Island, New York. Anna and Read more...
Author: I Need Thee Every Hour “Suddenly, I became so filled with the sense of nearness to the Master that, wondering how one could live without Him, either in joy or pain, these words were ushered into my mind, the thought at once taking full possession of me – ‘I Need Thee Every Hour …’” In the Hoosick Cemetery (Hoosick, Read more...
Author: Victory in Jesus Eugene Monroe Bartlett, Sr., was laid to rest at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, only two years after suffering a debilitating stroke at the age of fifty-four. Bartlett was quite the musician, having composed several hundred hymns during his lifetime and founding the Hartford Music Institute in 1921. The Institute was driven to Read more...
Author: Just As I Am “Then followed a period of much seclusion and bodily distress, from the continuance of feeble health. Her views, too, became clouded and confused, through an introduction to religious controversy, and the disturbing influence of various teachers, who held inadequate notions of the efficacy of Divine grace.” (Sister of Charlotte, Eleanor Elliott Babington, describing Charlotte’s physical Read more...
Author: Leaning on the Everlasting Arms “(Anthony Showalter) was known as an editor, composer, compiler, writer of theory textbooks, song leader, and successful businessman, simultaneously managing three music-related businesses and having interests in lumber (and) insurance …” (The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology) Talk about a “Renaissance Man!” Anthony Showalter showed an aptitude for music, business, church ministry, philanthropy, teaching, administration, Read more...
On July 17, 1854, Frances Ridley Havergal was confirmed at Worcester Cathedral. In the procession to Worcester Cathedral Ellen Wakeman was my companion. On reaching our seat very near the rails, I sunk on my knees, and for the first time to-day the thought of “whose I am” burst upon me, and I prayed “my God, oh, my own Father, Read more...
Hymn Writer. Served in the First Methodist Church in Cape May, New Jersey for 60 years. He served in the American Civil War in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was also a riverboat pilot on the Delaware River. Cousin of hymn writer Eliza Edmund Hewitts. Author of Beulah Land and Simply Trusting. Simply trusting every day, Trusting through a stormy way; Even Read more...
ROBERT LOWRY MARCH 12, 1826 – NOVEMBER 25, 1899 BORN IN PHILADELPHIA, ROBERT LOWRY WAS CONVERTED AND RECEIVED INTO THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF THAT CITY AT THE AGE OF SEVENTEEN. ACTIVE IN VARIOUS AREAS OF SERVICE, HE SOON ACKNOWLEDGED HIS CALL TO THE MINISTRY. LOWRY ENTERED SCHOOL AT LEWISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA-NOW BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY. HE GRADUATED IN 1854, Read more...
From Wikipedia: Montgomery himself expected that his name would live, if at all, in his hymns. Some of these, such as “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”, “Prayer is the Soul’s Sincere Desire”, “Stand up and Bless the Lord” and the carol “Angels from the Realms of Glory”, are still sung. “The Lord Is My Shepherd” is a popular hymn with Read more...
Written on stationary from the Brevoort House in Chicago, Horatio Spafford penned this famous hymn while on a ship as he crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Not that long ago, his daughters had drowned after the Ville du Havre suffered a tragic crash. His wife telegraphed back, “Saved alone.” The manuscript is now found at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem. Read more...
From FindAGrave: Hymn Writer, Religious Figure. He was a successful businessman in Chicago, Illinois in the late 1800s who lost a great deal of real estate in the Chicago Fire. He penned the famous hymn “It Is Well” after receiving word of the death of his four daughters in an accident at sea on November 22, 1873. Eventually having two Read more...
