Hymns With A Message: WONDERFUL WORDS OF LIFE

Sunday, January 27, 2013

WONDERFUL WORDS OF LIFE

Despite his short life, Philip P. Bliss was one of the most important and influential gospel song writers of the nineteenth century. At age 10, while selling vegetables to help support the family, Bliss first heard a piano. At age 11, he left home to make his own living. He worked in timber camps and sawmills. While working he irregularly went to school to further his education. In 1857, Bliss met J. G. Towner, who taught singing. Towner recognised Bliss's talent and gave him his first formal voice training. He also met William B. Bradbury, who persuaded him to become a music teacher. His first musical composition was for a flute. In 1858, he took up an appointment in Rome Academy, Pennsylvania. In Rome Bliss met Lucy J. Young, whom he married in 1859. She came from a musical family and encouraged the development of his talent. At age 22 Bliss became an itinerant music teacher. On horseback he went from community to community, accompanied by a melodeon. Bliss's wife's grandmother lent Bliss $30 so he could attend the Normal Academy of Music of New York for six weeks. In 1869, Bliss formed an association with Dwight L. Moody. Moody and others urged him to give up his job and become a missionary singer. In 1874, Bliss decided he was called to the task of "winning souls" and he became a full-time evangelist. Bliss made significant amounts of money from royalties and gave them to charity and to support his evangelical endeavours. On one occasion, Christian publisher Fleming H. Revell (Dwight Moody's brother-in-law) was about to launch a new Sunday School paper and wanted a song that would capture the overall focus of the publication. The name of the paper was to be Words of Life. Mr. Revell asked Bliss if he could come up with a song to fit the paper. So Bliss composed this week's hymn, "Wonderful Words of Life" But after the first issue of the publication the song was all but forgotten. Mr. Revell passed on a copy to another hymn writer, George Stebbins, who began using it in evangelistic meetings. It caught on, after that, and became very popular. About the hymn and meetings, Bliss said, "I carried that song through two seasons of evangelistic work, never thinking it possessed much merit, or that it had the element of special usefulness, particularly for solo purposes. It occurred to me to try it one day during the campaign in New Haven, and, with the help of Mrs. Stebbins, we sang it as a duet. To our surprise the song was received with the greatest enthusiasm and from that time on to the close of the meetings was the favorite of all the hymns used. As an illustration of the hold it got upon the people all about that section of the country, I received a letter from the Secretary of the Connecticut State Sunday School Association offering me what seemed an absurdly large sum of money, if I would, with Mrs. Stebbins, come to the State Convention and sing that one song." I have not been able to find if they went to the convention and what the "absurdly large sum of money" was. However, it is a great song reminding us of the impact of God's words. May we never take them for granted.

(1) Sing them over again to me,
wonderful words of life,

Let me more of their beauty see,
wonderful words of life;

Words of life and beauty teach me faith and duty.

Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life,

Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life.

(2) Christ, the blessèd One, gives to all
wonderful words of life;

Sinner, list to the loving call,
wonderful words of life;

All so freely given, wooing us to heaven.

Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life,

Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life.

(3) Sweetly echo the Gospel call,
wonderful words of life;

Offer pardon and peace to all,
wonderful words of life;