This sheet music is part of the collection of crosby3145 :
History’s great heroes
tend to have help. Every
president has his vice
president, Alexander Graham
Bell had his Mr. Watson, David
Livingstone had his Mr.
Stanley. Often, these helpers
perform a service invaluable
to the more famous figure that
overshadows them, a service
the hero couldn’t have done
on his own. Excelling in this
service, these helpers become
famous in their own right, and
deservedly so, for the great
work they’ve done. Such was
Ira D. Sankey to the great
evangelist D.L. Moody.
Sankey was born August 28,
1840, in Edinburg,
Pennsylvania. He didn’t
grow up a Christian but got
saved at the age of 16 at the
King’s Chapel, three miles
from his home. The family
moved to Newcastle,
Pennsylvania, around 1857,
where Sankey started leading
the choir at the local
Methodist Episcopal Church.
His reputation as a singer
drew people in to hear his
voice.
In 1860, Sankey enlisted in
the 12th Pennsylvania
Regiment, serving for the
Union in the Civil War. While
in the army, he led the
singing for religious
services. Once his term was
up, he went back to
Pennsylvania, where he
assisted his father at the IRS
and also started helping out
at the YMCA. He got married
in 1863 to Fanny V. Edwards, a
help to him throughout his
life.
In 1870, Sankey went to
Chicago as a delegate at the
YMCA convention. His singing
of “There Is a Fountain
Filled with Blood,”
attracted the attention of
D.L. Moody, and the following
exchange took place between
the two. Sankey reports:
“As I drew near Mr. Moody he
stepped forward and taking me
by the hand looked at me in
that keen, piercing fashion of
his as if reading my very
soul. Then he said abruptly,
'Where are you
from?'
'Pennsylvania,' I
replied. 'Are you
married?' 'I
am.' 'How many
children have you?'
'Two.' 'What is
your business?' 'I
am a government officer.'
'Well, you'll have
to give it up!' I was too
much astonished to make any
reply and he went on as if the
matter had already been
decided: 'I have been
looking for you for the last
eight years. You'll have
to come to Chicago and help me
in my work.'”
Sankey took a lot of
convincing, but in 1871, he
agreed to spend seven days
with Moody in Chicago, and by
the end of the week, he had
resigned his IRS job and
accepted the position. When
asked about Sankey’s
contribution, Moody is
reported to have said, “If
we can only get people to have
the words of the Love of God
coming from their mouths
it's well on its way to
residing in their
hearts.”
Sankey’s skill as a singer
was something Moody did not
have, but wanted. As Moody
said, “I feel sure the great
majority of people do like
singing. It helps to build up
an audience — even if you do
preach a dry sermon. If you
have singing that reaches the
heart, it will fill the church
every time. There is more said
in the Bible about praise than
prayer, and music and song
have not only accompanied all
Scripture revivals, but are
essential in deepening
spiritual life. Singing does
at least as much as preaching
to impress the word of God
upon people's minds. Ever
since God first called me, the
importance of praise expressed
in song has grown upon
me.”
Forced to pause their work in
October of 1871 due to the
Great Chicago Fire, Sankey and
Moody nevertheless continued,
and Sankey moved his family to
Chicago the next year. He and
Moody sailed for England in
1873, where they toured the
United Kingdom holding
meetings. It was while they
were in England that Reverend
A.A. Rees of Sunderland coined
a new phrase when he said that
Sankey was “singing the
gospel.” Sankey’s
“gospel songs” caught on
in Scotland, where the former
practice of singing only
psalms was soon disregarded,
as gospel songs were added to
the repertoire.
Sankey’s first actual
composition came in Edinburgh,
as famed hymnwriter Horatius
Bonar wrote a set of words for
him. In 1874, he wrote his
most famous, “The Ninety and
Nine.” He first got the
idea while on a train ride
from Glasgow to Edinburgh,
when he read the poem in a
newspaper. A week later,
Moody preached on the Prodigal
Son and, at the end of the
sermon, asked Sankey to sing a
hymn. Sankey seemed to hear a
voice inside telling him to
sing ‘The Ninety and
Nine,’ so he sat down at the
organ and wrote the words to
it. The hymn received instant
popularity and went on to be
admired by so distinguished an
audience as Queen Victoria and
Prime Minister William
Gladstone. Years afterwards,
famed London preacher Charles
Spurgeon would use Sankey’s
hymns at his services.
Moody and Sankey returned to
the U.S. in 1874, and after
preaching in Northfield,
Massachusetts, on their first
stop back, they travelled
around the country, preaching
in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, New
York, Chicago, Boston, St.
Louis, and countless other
cities. They even made it
back to Great Britain a few
times and preached in Canada
and Mexico.
Over the course of his
service with Moody, Sankey
wrote many hymns. Though he
occasionally wrote the texts,
he more often wrote the words,
and the hymnwriters he
collaborated with included
William O. Cushing and Fanny
J. Crosby. Sankey
collaborated with such
well-known songwriters as
Philip Bliss, George C.
Stebbins, and James McGranahan
on collections. The most
famous collection he put
together is Sacred Songs &
Solos (also known as Sankey
& Moody), a collection of
over 1200 hymns that remains
used today.
Sankey was also quite a
philanthropist during his
life. He built a YMCA
building in Newcastle, his
hometown. Sankey also helped
raise 10,000 pounds to build
the Carrubbers Close Mission,
still in use in Edinburgh
today. He passed away in
1908, leaving a legacy of song
that endures today.
A 1914 biography of Sankey
lists his most popular hymns
as "The Ninety and
Nine," "The Cross of
Jesus," "Jesus of
Nazareth," "Onward
and Upward,"
"There'll Be No Dark
Valley," "Call Them
Now," "A Little
While," "Room For
Thee," "A Shelter in
the Time of Storm,"
"Tell It Out,"
"When the Mists Have
Rolled Away," "While
the Days Are Going By,"
"Hiding in Thee,"
etc.” I’ve never heard of
several of these, though this
collection does contain “The
Ninety and Nine,”
“There’ll Be No Dark
Valley,” “A Shelter in the
Time of Storm,” and
“Hiding in Thee.”
“Under His Wings,”
“Faith Is the Victory,”
and “Trusting Jesus” would
seem appropriate for this list
as well, as those hymns are
still fairly well-known today.
This collection also contains
three obscurities: “Grace,
‘Tis a Charming Sound!,”
“What a Gathering,” and
“I Am Praying for You.” I
hope you enjoy these as much
as the thousands of people who
heard them for the first time
at Moody and Sankey’s
revival meetings so many years
ago!