SPARED TO SING

 A monthly feature on a hymn of the faith.

Since this is the weekend that many hurry to finish their income tax returns, it might be worth mentioning that one of history's most famous Gospel-song musicians, Ira Sankey, had ties to the Internal Revenue Service. But just briefly. President Abraham Lincoln had appointed his father, David Sankey, as “Collector of Internal Revenue.” The younger Sankey joined his father in government service after his own stint in the Union Army where a song saved his life.

The story was told in the Dec. 24 entry for Mrs. Charles Cowman's classic devotional compilation, Streams in the Desert, Vol, 2. That entry shared the story of a night in 1862 when Sankey, then a Union Army member, was on military watch duty. Unknown to him, out in the darkness, a Confederate soldier had aimed his musket right at Sankey, a sure target. Unaware of this danger, Sankey had looked to the sky—the heavens—and began singing the 1836 hymn, “Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us,” in his rich baritone voice. The enemy put down his musket, thinking he'd let Sankey finish singing the hymn. But the hymn's words and music gripped the would-be killer:

We are Thine, do Thou befriend us,/ Be the guardian of our way.

The man never fired his weapon at Sankey. And he never forgot that moment.

As time went on, Sankey finished his commitment to military service. He married, worked briefly in government service (the early “IRS”), but soon came to the attention of evangelist Dwight Moody, who needed a song leader for his crusades. Moody challenged Sankey: “Come join me.”

From then on, Sankey built a reputation as a Gospel singer (accompanying himself on a little reed organ) through Moody's evangelistic campaigns throughout United States and two tours to Great Britain. In London, Queen Victoria and statesman William E. Gladstone heard Sankey sing. He also compiled a hymnal, “Sacred Songs and Solos,” that sold extremely well, and introduced the Christian public to emerging Gospel poets and songwriters, like the prolific Phillip Bliss and Fanny Crosby.

But here's the rest of the story of “Savior Like Shepherd Lead Us.” On Christmas Eve, 1875, he was traveling on a steamboat up the Delaware River. Passengers gathered on deck asked if he would sing. He intended to do a Christmas song, but instead obeyed an impulse to sing “Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us.” That hymn, the words by Dorothy Thulip and music by William Bradley, was long a favorite. It was also the song he had sung on his lonely Civil War guard watch thirteen years earlier.

Afterwards, a man with a rough, weather-beaten face came up to Sankey and asked if he'd ever served in the Union Army. Sankey said yes. The man probed further: “Can you remember if you were doing picket duty on a bright, moonlight night in 1862?”

To Sankey's surprised affirmation, the man revealed he almost killed him that night, but the song caused him to put down his weapon. Especially convicting were the lyrics, “We are Thine, do Thou befriend us, Be the guardian of our way.” Stricken by the hymn's message, the man asked Sankey to help him “find a cure for my sick soul.” That night, Sankey's former enemy became a Christ-follower.

As Sankey aged, the intense pace of crusade and singing ministry strained his voice and compromised his health. Moody and Sankey conducted their last campaign together in Kansas City, just a month before Moody's death the end of 1899. Sankey's own health suffered more after solo campaigns to Egypt, Palestine and Britain. He lost his sight to glaucoma, finally dying in 1908 just short of age 68. By one report, just before he slipped into unconsciousness, he was singing an 1891 hymn by his contemporary, blind hymnist Fanny Crosby:

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!

*Among the hymn texts (by others) for which Sankey wrote the tunes were: “Am I a Solider of the Cross,” “Beneath the Cross of Jesus,” “God Will Take Care of You, “Under His Wings,” “There Were Ninety and Nine, “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne,” “Hiding in Thee.”

Here's a rare recording of Sankey playing and singing: Bing Videos