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...
Although Fanny Crosby spent the majority of her life in Manhattan (growing up at the New York Institution for the Blind, working with the Bowery Rescue Mission, etc.), she did spend the last 11 years of her life in Bridgeport. Using Darlene Neptune’s Fanny Crosby Still Lives as our guide, we took the train into Bridgeport, Connecticut to see if Read more...
Horatio Spafford, well-off lawyer and friend of D.L. Moody lived here on the north side of Chicago. During the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, he lost much of his real estate holdings. A couple years later he sent his family ahead to Europe where D.L. Moody would be preaching. The Ville du Havre sank, and all four of his daughters Read more...
From Daytonian in Manhattan: Three blocks to the north, on Ninth Avenue between 33rd and 34th Street, the New York Asylum for the Blind had stood since 1831. In 1839 it had taken in a 19-year old student, Franny J. Crosby, who quickly was recognized for her talent in writing poetry and hymns. Fanny had been blinded by an incompetent physician at Read more...
Hello… My name is Fanny Crosby. I entered the New York Institution for the Blind as a student in 1835 at the age of 15. I later taught grammar, rhetoric, and history as a faculty member of the school. I published two autobiographies, four books of poetry, and over 8,000 hymns and gospel songs, some of which are still sung today. Read more...
At 26, Herbert G. Tovey wrote the song “Give Me a Passion for Souls” – out of 1,500 songs published under his Sacred Music Foundation, this was the most popular. 1 Give me a passion for souls, dear Lord, A passion to save the lost; O that Thy love were by all adored, And welcomed at any cost. Refrain: Read more...
When planning a shoot for our TV/ program, we try to group geographically proximate locations together. It so happened that while planning an interview with the son of Singspiration founder Al Smith, nearby we found a documented site tied to the old spiritual, “The Old Time Religion.” In 1834, the South Carolina Lutheran Synod purchased this building and started a Read more...
Inscription: Famous singing evangelist, fellow-worker with Dwight L. Moody in Europe and in America, was born August 28, 1840, at Edinburg, in a house since removed. He died in Brooklyn, New York, on August 13, 1908. Featured Image Credit: Photo: Ira D. Sankey Marker. www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=144313. Read more...
Actual grave location unknown – check findagrave and cemetery map Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Master, Though the loss sustained our spirit often grieves; When our weeping’s over, He will bid us welcome, We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves. Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves, Read more...
Ballard Baptist Church, Seattle, WA We’re here in Seattle at Ballard Baptist Church, built in 1919, where Helen Lemmel was a member while she wrote Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus. She was born Mary Helen Howarth in the Manchester area of England, November 14, 1863, to a Methodist Minister. Her father took the family from England to Whitewater, Wisconsin Read more...
