“I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will
sing praise to my God while I have being.” (Psalm 104:33)
Philip Paul Bliss was born
to singing parents in a log cabin in the northern Pennsylvania woods. He was
raised with his mother’s hymnbook in one hand and his father’s Bible in the
other. He left home at age 11 to work in lumber camps and sawmills. At age 12
he made a public profession of faith and joined the Baptist Church of Cherry
Flats, PA. Bliss later said that he never recalled a time when he did not love
Christ.
Despite his limited schooling,
Bliss found a way to hone his musical talent. As a young man, Bliss set out on
horseback with an accordion as an itinerant music teacher. In 1858 he met his
beloved wife, Lucy, a musician and poet who encouraged him to write songs of
faith. Bliss discovered that he an uncanny knack for writing hymns and churned
them out as if divinely anointed.
His divine appointment
came one summer night in 1869, while attending a revival meeting where the
famed evangelist D. L. Moody was preaching. The man intended to lead music that
night became ill and was unable to play. When a plea was made that night for
anyone in the crowd with musical skill to help lead the worship, Bliss answered.
And the rest they say is history—Moody had found a music minister to accompany him
in his evangelistic campaigns.
Bliss toured the country
with Moody and his music became prolific. However, his career would be short
lived. During the Christmas holidays of 1876 the Bliss family visited his
mother in PA. They boarded the Pacific Express in Buffalo to return home to Chicago.
About eight o’clock that evening in a blinding snowstorm as the train crossed a
ravine, the wooden trestle collapsed. The railcars, packed with holiday passengers,
plunged 75 feet into the icy river and caught fire. Over a hundred people
perished in the wreck, among them—Philip Bliss and his family. He was only 38.
By providence, Philip’s
trunk had been placed on another train and it arrived safely in Chicago. Inside
his friends found the words to his last hymn. “I will sing of my Redeemer /
And His wonderous love to me. / One the cruel cross He suffered / From the
curse to set me free.”[1]
Bliss is considered by many
to be one of the greatest hymnists in history. Had he lived as long as his
peers, Fanny Crosby, Charles Wesley and Ira Sankey, he may have surpassed them
all. Along with his last song, “I Will Sing of My Redeemer” another favorite of
his is “Wonderful Words of Life.” Even though it’s been over 140 years since
his death, we are still singing his hymns today.
As I thought about the relatively
short, but impactful life of Bliss, I was reminded of a quote that I heard
sometime ago by holocaust survivor, Corrie Ten Boom, “The measure of a life,
after all, is not its duration, but its donation.” The greatest use of a life
is to spend it on something that will outlast it, which is the Word and God and
souls of men and women. Bliss went out of this world singing and writing for
the Lord. What about you? Has the Lord inspired you to write something—a song, a
poem, a book or a devotional. Why not write it down ASAP; you never know how it
might bless someone else down the road. -DM
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