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O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His Gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother
And in His Name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy Name!
Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
Sung by Josh Groban
Words: Placide Clappeau, translated from French to English by
John S. Dwight Music: Adolphe C. Adam This is said to have been the
first music ever broadcast over a radio
Ira David Sankey,1840-1908, Vocalist
Written by: Unknown Posted on: 03/13/2003
Category: Biographies
Source: CCN
Ira SANKEY WAS THE PIONEER MUSIC
DIRECTOR of the masses in
American evangelism. The Sweet Singer of Methodism brought to the Moody
revivals zest and inspiration that prepared hearts for the messages of
the famed evangelist. He set the pattern for those who later followed
in his footsteps--Charles Alexander, Homer Rodeheaver, and Cliff
Barrows. More than any other man, he was the one who ushered in the
gospel song era. Sankey was a great leader of congregations and choirs.
He was a soloist of great ability, singing special music wherever he
went. He also helped in the inquiry room. Sankey seldom wrote poetry as
did Fanny Crosby and P.P. Bliss. However, he did compose music and
provide the tunes for some of the great hymns written during those
days. Sankey can be credited with providing the melody for the
following: A Shelter in the Time of Storm, Faith Is the Victory, Grace
'Tis a Charming Sound, Hiding in Thee, I Am Praying for You, The Ninety
and Nine, There'll Be No Dark Valley, Trusting Jesus, Under His Wings,
and When the Mists Have Rolled Away.
Ira David Sankey was born into
the home of pious Methodists,
David and Mary Sankey. One of the chief pleasures of his boyhood was to
join the family circle around the great log fireplace. Long winter
evenings were spent singing the old hymns of the church. He learned to
read music this way and by the age of eight, he could sing many famous
hymn tunes correctly. Spiritual interests were kindled by a Mr. Fraser,
who loved children. Along with his own sons, he took Sankey to a Sunday
school held in an old schoolhouse. Sankey had educational opportunities
that many were denied. He became a Christian in 1856 at the age of 16,
while attending revival meetings at a church known as the King's
Chapel, located about three miles from his home. A year later the
family moved to Newcastle where he became a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. His talents were soon recognized and he was elected
superintendent of the Sunday school, director of the choir, and class
leader. His father was the president of the bank which also provided
young Sankey with a job. He became active in the fight to bring musical
instruments into church services and he was responsible for the first
organ to be installed in his own church. Here he gained invaluable
experience and his voice began to attain that rich, resonant quality
which was to make him world famous later on. When President Lincoln
called for men to help the government in 1860, Sankey was one of the
first young men to enroll as a soldier. His company was sent to
Maryland. In the army, his love of singing endeared him to his
companions and he often led the singing for religious services held in
the camp. He organized a male chorus in the company and assisted the
chaplain with services. President Lincoln appointed his father as a
Collector of Internal Revenue and after his term of service and the
Civil War was over, Sankey returned to Newcastle to assist his father
and enter governmental service. He remained with the Internal Revenue
Department for several years. At the age of 23, on September 9, 1863,
he married Fanny V. Edwards, who was a member of his choir and a
teacher in his Sunday school. The Sankeys had three sons, one of whom
was born in Scotland. In 1867, a branch of the Y.M.C.A. was organized
at Newcastle and he became its secretary and, later, president. Many
years later, he had the pleasure of presenting a Y.M.C.A. building to
his city. The building, including a gymnasium and library, cost more
than $40,000. The funds were realized from the sale of his gospel
hymns. Sankey's fame as a singer spread throughout western Pennsylvania
and eastern Ohio. He received invitation after invitation to sing for
conventions, conferences, and political gatherings. He attended so many
musical conventions, and spent so much of his time in religious work,
that his father once said, "I'm afraid Ira will never amount to
anything. All he does is run around the country with a hymn-book under
his arm!" To which his mother replied, "Well, I'd rather see him with a
hymn-book under his arm, than with a whiskey bottle in his pocket!"
Sankey had no desire to make music a profession. It was never his
custom to receive any remuneration for his services. In his work with
the Y.M.C.A., he found an ever-widening field of usefulness. In June of
1870, he was appointed a delegate to the International Convention in
Indianapolis. For several years he had read in the religious press of
the work of Dwight L. Moody. In connection with the convention, it was
announced that Moody was to speak at an early morning prayer meeting in
a Baptist church on a Sunday morning. Sankey was most anxious to hear
and meet the man. Having arrived a little late at the meeting, he sat
near the door with a Presbyterian minister who urged Sankey to start a
song. At the right moment, as Moody requested a song, Sankey started to
sing There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood. The congregation joined in
heartily and the meeting took on a new impetus. At the close of the
service, he was introduced to Moody, who abruptly asked him terse
questions. When asked about his business, Sankey replied that he was
employed by the government. Moody remarked, "You will have to give it
up!" Nonplussed, Sankey listened to the evangelist who said, "I have
been looking for you for eight years." Sankey was interested but not
ready to render a decision. Moody asked him to meet him at a certain
street corner the next day. Moody brought a big box and asked Sankey to
mount it and then requested that he sing something. Sankey complied and
sang Am I a Soldier of the Cross. Moody then began to speak to a large
crowd of working men, who had left the mills to hear him. At the end of
the service, he announced that he would continue the meeting at the
Opera House. Sankey led that large packed Opera House gathering in
singing Shall We Gather at the River? It took Sankey six months to
consent to spend a week with Moody in Chicago. This visit concluded
with a great mass meeting at Farwell Hall where Sankey sang Come Home,
Prodigal Child at the last service. Soon, his resignation was sent to
the Secretary of the Treasury, and a life of faith began. At the age of
30, Sankey began his work with
Moody early in 1871 and labored with him
daily until the Great Chicago Fire erupted on October 8, 1871, which
destroyed everything. Moody had just finished speaking to a crowded
Farwell Hall audience. As Sankey was singing, in the middle of a song,
his voice was drowned by the clanging of fire engines. Confusion arose
from the streets and Moody dismissed the congregation. The two men
parted, not to meet again for Sankey had spent many hectic hours in the
confusion that followed the fire. At first, he tried to aid in
preventing the spread of the flames, but a large wind all but doomed
the city. The fire was moving toward the business section and Farwell
Hall. The flames followed so closely, he was compelled to shake falling
embers from his coat. When he arrived at his room, he grabbed his most
valued possessions and left the building. He could find no means of
transportation so headed toward Lake Michigan. After many harrowing
experiences, he reached the lake shore in safety, exhausted, and very
thirsty. He found a small rowboat, and, putting his possessions on
board, rowed out far enough to find fresh water. Tying his boat in
position, he watched the destruction of the city. A whole day passed
and now, on the evening of the 9th, Sankey determined to return to
shore, even though the city was still engulfed in flames. To his
dismay, he discovered that the line which fastened his boat had broken.
He was swept out on the rolling lake and for a time his life was in
danger. But God overruled and
brought him to shore safely. He took a
train for his Pennsylvania home and stayed there until a brief telegram
arrived from Moody asking him if he would please return to Chicago and
assist in the new ministry at the crude temporary tabernacle that had
been recently constructed. Returning, Sankey was to discover that he
and Moody would often sleep together in a corner of the tabernacle with
only a single lounge for a bed. During these busy months Moody was
soliciting funds for the reconstruction of the church. Soon, a new
edifice was dedicated.
Sankey moved his family to
Chicago in October of 1872. While
Moody was in England during this year, Sankey, with good assistance,
kept the great work in Chicago going. Upon Moody's return, they seemed
to work together better than ever. An evangelistic campaign in
Springfield, Illinois, saw unusual power and blessing. About this time,
Sankey's esteemed friend, P.P. Bliss, returned from Europe with
impressive engagements lined up. He made Sankey an enticing offer to
accompany him and assist in the services of song--but Sankey declined.
The partnership with Moody continued as they worked well together.
Moody would arouse and startle his hearers with his preaching and at
the conclusion of his appeal, Sankey would rise and sing. His melodious
voice was soothing and comforting, with deep conviction, and he
believed that souls could be saved with each note he sang. Moody
decided that Sankey would be his associate on the next trip abroad, and
agreed to pay him $100 per month. The memorable 1873-75 revival
throughout the British Isles began in June of 1873. Mrs. Sankey and
Moody's family accompanied the team. En route to Liverpool, where they
landed, they had been notified that the men who had invited them to
come to England were dead and no meetings were scheduled. Remembering
the Y.M.C.A. at York had invited him to speak there, should he ever
return to England, Moody obtained the use of the Independent Chapel and
evangelistic services were announced. The first service was attended by
fewer than fifty persons and Sankey found the people unaccustomed to
his methods and to his type of songs. F.B. Meyer, a leading Baptist
minister of the city, helped turn the tide by his enthusiastic
endorsement of the team. Invitations began to come from various towns.
At Sunderland, Sankey sang several favorite songs, unaware of the
opposition by the pastor to solos, organ music, and choirs. However,
the Reverend Rees was impressed and posted notices announcing that Mr.
Sankey, from Chicago, would "sing the gospel." This phrase came to be
widely used thereafter. One night as Sankey sang Come Home, O
Prodigal,
Come Home, a cry pierced the silence and a young man rushed forward and
fell in the arms of his father, begging forgiveness. The entire
congregation was impressed and hundreds pressed to an adjoining room
seeking prayer and pardon. Next came Newcastle, where he first began to
use the songs Sweet By and By and Christ Arose. Here, the first choir
was organized and revival fires burned for two months. The Edinburgh,
Scotland, crusade began on November 23, 1873. Apart from the Psalms,
music was not used to any degree. Man-made hymns had much prejudice
against them. Moody caught a cold and could not speak the first night.
J.H. Wilson was to take his place. Tactfully, Sankey asked the
congregation to join in singing a portion of the 100th Psalm. Scripture
and prayer followed. Sankey then sang his first solo, Jesus of Nazareth
Passeth By. The intense silence bore testimony that this novel method
of presenting the gospel was being accepted. After the message, he
selected Hold the Fort and asked the congregation to join in the
chorus. Scotland was now ready for the ministry of Moody and Sankey.
Gospel singing and the organ were now being accepted. The rest of the
amazing ministries of those days is told in the biography of Dwight L.
Moody (number three in this present Fundamental Baptist Church
Biography Series). The 1875 climax was the great London Crusade.
Arriving back home in America, on August 14, 1875, their first services
were in Northfield, Massachusetts, Moody's hometown. Moody's mother
professed conversion there and Sankey sang The Ninety and Nine for the
first time in America. The team's first large campaign in the states
began on October 31, 1875, in Brooklyn. Sankey's choir numbered 250
voices, aided by a large organ. However, when he sang, he accompanied
his solos on a small organ, a practice which he always preferred, not
wanting the music to detract from the message. The next crusade began
in Philadelphia on November 21st where, despite torrential rains, 9,000
showed up for the opening service. Here, his choir numbered 500 voices.
The New York crusade began on February 7, 1876, at the Great Roman
Hippodrome on Madison Avenue. A choir of 600 voices was led by Sankey,
and Moody had his largest audience to date. Sankey's health was
somewhat impaired, so he returned to his home in Newcastle. He busied
himself preparing his new songbook, Gospel Hymns Two, with his good
friend, P.P. Bliss, assisting him. Bliss was to die a tragic death
later that year, while on his way to visit the Chicago Crusade. The
Boston Crusade began on January 28, 1877, in a temporary structure, and
the staid, old city enjoyed his renditions as much as any. Cities
across the nation, in Canada and Mexico, were to enjoy the team in the
years that followed. Back in the British Isles, 1881-84, they found
many converts of former years. Sankey's publishing ventures grew to
tremendous proportions. His first hymnbook, published in England in
1873, was called Sacred Songs and Solos. It included 23 selections.
Then his Gospel Hymn series followed, with numbers one to six being
published between 1875 and 1891. These contained hundreds of hymns
still widely used. Several editions of these enjoyed sales that totaled
millions of copies in many languages. Royalties from his songbooks
would have given him a modest fortune, however, much of the royalty
income was used to help Moody's educational ventures, especially the
erection of his first school, Northfield School for Girls. Sankey was
active in the Northfield Conferences which Moody conducted, and Sankey
lived in Northfield in the summer. Fanny Crosby, also, spent several
summers with the Sankeys there. Sankey, his family, and a few friends
sailed from New York in January of 1898 for a visit to the Holy Land.
This was one of the great delights of his life. In 1899, Sankey
returned to Great Britain. There, he held special services in sacred
song and story, in some 30 cities and towns. It was this extended
engagement that impaired his health to the extent that he eventually
lost his eyesight. The team of Moody and Sankey was to be together for
the last time at a Brooklyn Church pastored by a Dr. Storr. The two
spent a Sunday together in New York and then parted for the last time.
Moody's last letter was dated November 6, 1899, and he died soon after.
Sankey continued conducting services of sacred song and story for some
time. As blindness overtook him in 1903, he lived out his days at his
Brooklyn, New York, home on South Oxford Street. During his last five
years, he had extreme weakness and much pain as glaucoma had destroyed
the optic nerve. Sankey maintained a sweet spirit of patience, and his
mind remained clear to the end. Of all his earthly friends, who cheered
him during his lonely hours, none proved a greater benediction than his
beloved friend, Fanny Crosby. They would sing, pray, and fellowship in
their blindness and discomfort. How they rejoiced in knowing that they
would soon be together in glory with the Saviour they adored and
reunited with D.L. Moody and other loved ones. His publication, My Life
and the Story of Gospel Hymns, came out in 1906. It was written from
the memory of the original manuscript, which was lost in a fire in 1901
at Battle Creek, Michigan, just prior to publication. Sankey passed on
in his sleep without a struggle. Funeral services were held at the
LaFayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, where Sankey was a member during
his latter years. Several of his own hymns were sung at the funeral by
an aged cousin, C.C. Sankey, including: The Ninety and Nine, There'll
Be No Dark Valley, Faith Is the Victory, and Hiding in Thee. The sermon
was delivered by the pastor, Charles E. Locke. Buried in the local
Greenwood Cemetery, his gravestone has a bar of music with `Good Night'
and `God Is Love' above and below it. Stories of his hymn compositions
seem a fitting way to conclude this biography. His first and most
famous composition was The Ninety and Nine. Sankey and Moody were en
route from Glasgow to Edinburgh, Scotland, in May, 1874, as they were
to hold a three-day campaign there. This was at the urgent request of
the Ministerial Association. Prior to boarding the train, Sankey bought
a weekly newspaper for a penny. He found nothing of interest but a
sermon by Henry W. Beecher and some advertisements. Then, he found a
little piece of poetry in a corner of one column that he liked, and he
read it to Moody, but only received a polite reply. Sankey clipped the
poem and tucked it in his pocket. At the noonday service of the second
day of the special series, Moody preached on The Good Shepherd.
Horatious Bonar added a few thrilling words and then Moody asked Mr.
Sankey if he had a final song. An inner voice prompted him to sing the
hymn that he found on the train. With conflict of spirit, he thought,
this is impossible! The inner voice continued to prod him, even though
there was no music to the poem, so he acquiesced. As calmly as if he
had sung it a thousand times, he placed the little piece of newspaper
on the organ in front of him. Lifting up his heart in a brief prayer to
Almighty God, he then laid his hands on the keyboard, striking a chord
in A flat. Half speaking and half singing, he completed the first
stanza, which was followed by four more. Moody walked over with tears
in his eyes and said, "Where did you get that hymn?" The Ninety and
Nine became his most famous tune and his most famous sale from that
time on. The words were written by Elizabeth Clephane in 1868. She died
in 1869, little realizing her contribution to the Christian world.
Trusting Jesus was written by Edgar Page Stites in 1876. The poem first
appeared in a newspaper and was handed to D.L. Moody. He, in turn, gave
it to his partner, Ira Sankey, and asked him to set it to music. Mr.
Sankey agreed to do so, on one condition, that Moody would vouch for
the doctrine taught in the verses, which he did. It became the favorite
hymn of W.B. Riley. A Shelter in the Time of Storm was written by V.J.
Charlesworth. Sankey found it in a little paper published in London,
called the Postman. This song became a favorite of fishermen in the
northern part of England. Sankey composed a practical melody for church
use in preference to a former weird, minor sound it first had. I Am
Praying for You was written by Samuel O'Malley Cluff. Sankey found the
poem on a leaflet, in 1874, when he was with Moody in Ireland. The song
was first used in the Moody-Sankey campaign in London in 1875. This was
his second musical setting with only the famous, The Ninety and Nine,
preceding this.
[During the
Civil War], the YMCA became a valuable
link between the evangelical Christian Churches and the Northern
soldiers.
Moody spent a great deal of time in the front lines, distributing song
books
and pamphlets to the young men. The YMCA also provided a great deal of
relief
work to the injured soldiers, giving care, spiritually, physically and
emotionally. President Abraham Lincoln himself heard of Moody's success
and
work with the Church and the YMCA. In 1861 Lincoln visited Moody on his way
from Springfield to Washington. Lincoln told the children at Moody's
school,
"put into practice what you learn from your teachers, some of you may
also
become President of the United States."
Shelby Trollinger New
Religious Movements University of Virginia
President Grant and
some of his Cabinet also attended a Moody & Sankey meeting on
January 19,
1876.
Sankey and Fanny Crosby
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Courtesy Moody Bible
Institute
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We have now to hand
the complete figures so far as
the circulation of “Sacred Songs and
Solos” is concerned, taken from our records from the year 1873 until
the end of
December 1927, and find the grand total for all editions, and including
the Christian Choir, published and circulated by us, amounts
approximately to Seventy – Million
copies.
The number of sales of
these Hymn Books during the
period January 1 to December 31, 1927, totals 221,715.
Signed by the General Manager
F.E. Monk
This is the
exact copy of the letter addressed to
me, as one of the Directors of Morgan and Scott.
F.B
Meyer
Courtesy
of the Moody Bible Institute
“Sankey, it might be said, wrote
the gospel hymns of the
world. In China, Egypt, India, Japan,
in almost every language known to man, Sankey’s hymns are sung.” - New York newspaper
“He sang five stanzas of the
song (Ninety and Nine), and when he finished the audience sat
spellbound. Mr. Moody rushed up to him and
asked him
what the song was. It then became known
that Mr. Sankey had composed it on the inspiration of the moment.”
Courtesy Moody Bible
Institute
His singing often touched the heart,
and souls were
won by it to Jesus. In a children’s
meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, he (Mr. Sankey) related a touching
incident of
a little child who, on her dying bed, testified that his singing “Jesus
Loves
Even Me”, in the Tabernacle in Chicago, led her to give her heart to
the
Saviour. “That testimony”, he said,
“from that little child in that neglected quarter of Chicago, has done
more to
stimulate me and bring me to this country than all that the papers or
any
persons might say.”
Another
writes: “The admiration of Mr. Sankey’s
music is enthusiastic. When he sings a
solo, a deathlike silence reigns: or as the Irish Times describes it,
it seems
that he only is present in the vast building.”
Courtesy
Moody Bible Institute
"...He [Moody] refused to attack the
[Chicago World's Fair] authorities for opening on Sundays but said the
Gospel would be stronger. Few believed him until, in August, the Fair
decided to stop Sunday openings because of indifferent attendance while
[Moody & Sankey's] campaign Sunday by Sunday, was rising about
40,000 and 50,000 and, on October 15th, the last Sunday but two,
reached a peak at 62,000..."
J. C. Pollock, Moody:
A biographical portrait of the pacesetter in modern mass evangelism
And that was for Sunday's only. Thousands
attended the Moody and Sankey meetings during the week. It is
said that even the great Buffalo Bill and his Wild West shows would not
compete against Moody & Sankey revivals. - Bil
Rodgers Writer/Actor
Moody and Sankey
established Gospel Music as the major force in Church music. One of the
hymn books which included their work, Sacred Songs and Solos, sold over
80 million copies in fifty years and it remains in print to this day -
an astonishing achievement.
Moody and Sankey’s
missionary visit to Tahiti produced an extraordinary side-effect. The
Tahitians adapted Sankey’s Victorian harmonies into their own folk
music with fascinating results. So when you visit the South Seas you
will hear English nineteenth-century Gospel Music alive and well and
sung with much fervour in the Pacific sunshine!
From Music-For-Church-Choirs.com
IRA
D. SANKEY DIES, A SONG ON HIS
LIPS
Just
before he sank into
unconsciousness at the end, it is said, he was
heard faintly singing a verse of his favorite
hymn, not one of his
own, but one composed by Fanny Crosby, the blind hymn writer of Brooklyn:
Some day the silver chord
will break
And I no more, as
now, will
sing;
But oh! The joy when
I awake
Within the Palace of the
King
Perhaps no other evangelist except
Dwight L. Moody was so
well known all over the world as Mr. Sankey. His
hymns are sung today in China, Egypt, India, and
almost every other
land, they having been translated into very many languages.
From
an unattributed newspaper article dated August 15, 1908
Courtesy
of the Moody Bible Institute
My near
neighbor and beloved
friend, Mr.Sankey, is one of the greatest benefactors of this age. He has done for English speaking nations
what Luther did for Germany; he has popularized the Gospel in metre,
and set
the masses to singing. His pieces are
heard in the sailor’s forecastle and in the soldier’s barracks and in
the
cottages of the humblest peasantry. I
have even heard an aristocratic old English Earl play Sankey’s tunes in
his
private chapel of an ancient feudal castle, while his servants joined
in the
chorus of “Wash me and I shall be whiter thane snow”. .…the spirit of
our
Gospel is love and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; and whatever else
may be
there, heaven will be full of singing
Christians.
By Rev. Theodore L.
Cuyler
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Sankey popularized Gospel music and spread it
across the country and around the world. His songbooks
were probably the second most widely published books in the world after
the
Bible.
Ezekiel Sankey
David & Mary Ann Sankey's Father
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Senator David Sankey
"Father" of Lawrence County, PA
Ira Sankey's Father and
Mary Ann's Brother
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Mary Ann Sankey:
Aunt of Ira Sankey and
Grandmother of Eva
Harris Hemenway
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Eva
"She was so proud of him"
- Ann Hemenway
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Ira D.Sankey Music
Ninety and Nine http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/n/i/90_and_9.htm,
For You I Am Praying http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/a/iampray.htm
Faith Is The Victory, http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/f/a/faithist.htm
Blessed Redeemer,
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/l/blessred.htm
How Can I Keep From Singing? http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/c/hcaikeep.htm
SacredSongs.org
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