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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...
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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: Jesus, Read more...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Robert Lowry March 12, 1826 – November 25, 1899 Born in Philadelphia, Robert Lowry was converted at seventeen and received into the membership of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia. Active in Christian service from his youth, he soon recognized the Lord’s call to the ministry. He entered school at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania—now Bucknell University—where he distinguished himself academically, graduating in Read more...
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Hymn History: Trusting Jesus Author: Edgar Page Stites “Like many hymn writers of his time, Stites had no grand ambition to gain fame. He wrote his poetry as a natural outflow of his personal devotion to Christ and his desire to encourage others in their walk of faith.” (Hymnallibrary.org) Edgar Page Stites (1836–1921) stands among the quieter yet Read more...
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Hymn History: Leaning on the Everlasting Arms Author: Anthony Johnson Showalter “(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 Read more...
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Hymn History: Victory in Jesus Author: Eugene Monroe Bartlett Sr. 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 Read more...
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Hymn History: Jesus Loves Me Author: Anna Bartlett Warner “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) The Origin of the Hymn “Jesus Loves Me” Few hymns in the English-speaking world have Read more...
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Hymn History: The Love of God Author: Frederick Martin Lehman 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 Read more...
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Hymn History: Trust and Obey Author: John Hanna Sammis 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 Read more...
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Hymn History: I Will Sing the Wondrous Story Author: Francis Harold Rowley “The first element in worship is adoration. The Hebrews expressed this by their posture and not alone my their word. For they prostrated themselves before God. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” (Francis Harold Rowley) The Read more...
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Hymn History: Grace Greater Than All Our Sin Author: Julia Harriette Johnston 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, Read more...
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Moody Church: Many a lost soul has been won to the Lord by wandering over the cobblestones of memory’s lane and hearing again the sweet hymns of the church. When the roll is finally called up yonder, Avis B. Christiansen will find stars in her crown never dreamed of. As poetess and hymn writer, her inspired words have brought easing Read more...
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Wikipedia: He composed many tunes, including those for “He Leadeth Me”; “Just As I Am“; “Sweet Hour of Prayer” (attributed to William W. Walford, 1772–1850);[4] “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” and “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less“, all of which can still be found in hynmbooks and songbooks today. The Life and Legacy of William Batchelder Bradbury William Read more...
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From his autobiography: “Aside from the Bible, a few school text-books, and collections of song, I cannot recall a single volume of literature of any kind in our home, until my older brother and sisters grew up. My father was a subscriber to one weekly newspaper, which he would read and lend to some less fortunate neighbor. As the years Read more...
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From the Cemetery: Eliza Edmunds Hewitt (1851-1920), Section I, Lot #89-90 Eliza Hewitt was a songwriter who penned numerous Christian hymns. As a young woman, Hewitt taught at a Philadelphia public school, but after becoming ill with a spinal condition, she was confined to her bed. As her health improved, she began to write lyrics to songs, including “Sunshine in Read more...
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The Life and Legacy of William Howard Doane William Howard Doane (1832–1915) was one of the most influential gospel composers of the nineteenth century, a man whose life joined commercial success with deep and active Christian commitment. Remembered especially for his collaborations with leading hymn writers of his day, Doane helped shape the sound of evangelical worship in America during Read more...