This week our addition to the series Then Sings My Soul: The Hymns of My Youth is a hymn written by Philip Paul Bliss in 1875. Bliss was born July 9, 1838 in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.
On the evening of December 28, 1876, Bliss said to his audience, “I may not pass this way again”; then he sang a solo titled “I’m Going Home Tomorrow.” The next day, Bliss and his wife perished in a tragic train wreck caused by a bridge colapse at Ashtabula, Ohio. He actually survived the initial impact, but went back into the flames in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue his wife. The remains retrieved from the Ashtabula disaster were placed in a common grave marked by a cenotaph in the Ashtabula Cemetery. On July 17, 1877, a cenotaph in memory of the Blisses was erected in the cemetery at Rome, Pennsylvania.
Of this week’s hymn selection, Ira Sankey recalls,
this was the last hymn I heard Mr. Bliss sing. It was at a meeting in Farwell Hall in Chicago, conducted by Henry Moorehouse. A few weeks before his death Mr. Bliss visited the State prison at Jackson, Michigan, where, after a very touching address on “The Man of Sorrows,” he sang this hymn with great effect. Many of the prisoners dated their conversion from that day.
When Mr. Moody and I were in Paris, holding meetings in the old church which Napoleon had granted to the Evangelicals, I frequently sang this hymn as a solo, asking the congregation to join in the single phrase, “Hallelujah, what a Saviour,” which they did with splendid effect. It is said that the word “Hallelujah” is the same in all languages. It seems as though God had prepared it for the great jubilee of heaven, when all his children shall have been gathered home to sing “Hallelujah to the Lamb!”
My own recollections of the hymn date back to my childhood, of course. There are few hymns that reach the heights of the single line, “Hallelujah! What a Savior!” as each verse outlines an additional reason for us to rejoice in his name. And the last line repeated in each verse holds a wondrous sustain in the the right chapel.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Man of Sorrows! what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!Guilty, vile, and helpless we;
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
“Full atonement!” can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior!Lifted up was He to die;
“It is finished!” was His cry;
Now in Heav’n exalted high.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew His song we’ll sing:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Recent Comments