Sing them over again to me

Wonderful Words of Life

I. Origins

In 1874, Philip Bliss (1838–1876) was in high demand as a musician and composer. His primary means of income was in giving concerts and singing at conventions, accompanied by his wife Lucy, through which he could promote and sell his music. At the same time, he had been recruited to lead music part-time for the evangelistic campaigns of Major Daniel Webster Whittle (1840–1901). Over the winter of 1873–1874, another major evangelist, Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899), petitioned Bliss and Whittle to join forces with him. As biographer J.H. Hall noted, “They finally concluded to try a meeting or two, letting the results help them to decide. The first meeting was held in Waukegan, Ill., March 24th–26th. The meeting was a memorable one. Major Whittle says concerning it: ‘We returned to Chicago praising God; Bliss to find substitutes for his conventions, and I to resign my business position.’”[1]

Also in 1874, Bliss was involved in producing a Sunday School paper for the Fleming H. Revell company in Chicago called Words of Life. For the first issue of this paper, Bliss wrote one of his most enduring songs, “Wonderful Words of Life.” Unfortunately, no copy of this issue is known to survive. The song’s first known appearance in a songbook was in Songs for Sunday Schools and Gospel Meetings (Boston: White, Smith & Co., 1876 | Fig. 1), edited by James R. Murray.

 

Fig. 1. Songs for Sunday Schools and Gospel Meetings (Boston: White, Smith & Co., 1876).

 

II. Legacy

The song reached a broader audience through its inclusion in Ira Sankey’s Gospel Hymns No. 3 (1878), and in the British version of that series, Sacred Songs and Solos No. 2 (ca. 1878). After the tragic deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Bliss in a train derailment on 29 December 1876, Major Whittle recruited another singer-songwriter, husband-wife duo, James McGranahan (1840–1907) and his wife Addie (1842–1913), who carried on Bliss’s legacy by continuing to sing this song at revival meetings. One account, printed 28 March 1877 in the Chicago Tribune, said:

The usual noon prayer meeting was held in Farwell Hall yesterday under the guidance of Messrs. Whittle and McGranahan. . . . Mr. McGranahan and wife sang, with refreshing sweetness and harmony, the beautiful hymn “Wonderful Words of Life,” the lady playing the accompaniment on the organ.[2]

Another contemporary singer-songwriter, George C. Stebbins (1846–1945), later recounted his incorporation of the song into his work while traveling with evangelist Dr. George F. Pentecost (1842–1920) in early 1878:

After Moody and Sankey had finished their work in New Haven, Dr. Pentecost followed, as in other cities. The meetings in New Haven were also held in a rink and attended by throngs of people who had been awakened by the great evangelists. No incident worthy of notice occurred in this meeting, except the popularizing of “Wonderful Words of Life.” Nearly two years previous to that time, Fleming H. Revell, the publisher, handed me a copy of the first issue of a Sunday School paper called Words of Life, and stated that Mr. Bliss had written a song especially for use therein.

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. [Elma] Stebbins, we sing 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.[3]

III. Interpretation

Bliss’s song was originally published in three stanzas with a partial refrain. When the worshiper sings, “Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life,” which words are meant? Church music scholar William Lock explained, “Of course, the phrase ‘Wonderful words of life’ includes the preaching of the gospel as well as the words of holy scriptures; after all, the two are separable.”[4] Lock’s view is supported especially by the opening words of the third stanza, “Sweetly echo the gospel call.”

In the book of John, after Jesus told the crowds, “I am the bread of life,” and some of them turned away, Jesus asked his disciples, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:66–68). The psalmist said, “I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life” (Psalm 119:93). Pastor Robert Cottrill noted, “The responsibility not only to know God’s Word, but to share it with others, is reflected in [stanza 3].”[5]

Similarly, the great British preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892) equated these words by Bliss with the expression of the Christian gospel, in a sermon about the first recorded words of Jesus in Luke 2.48–49:

In this our text he set before his mother all that he came into the world to do, revealing his high and lofty nature, and disclosing his glorious errand. This verse is one of those which Luther would call his little Bibles, with the whole gospel compressed into it. What if I compare it to the attar of roses, whereof a single drop might suffice to perfume nations and ages. It would not be possible to overrate these “beautiful words! wonderful words! wonderful words of life!” Who, then, am I that I should venture to take such a text? I do not take it with any prospect of being able to unveil all its meaning, but merely to let you see how unfathomable it is. Emmanuel, God with us, speaks divinely while yet in his youth. The words of THE WORD surpass all others. May the Spirit of God open them to us.[6]

Regarding the waltz-like triple-meter tune, WORDS OF LIFE, hymnologist William Reynolds wrote, “The lilt of the tune reflects the abounding joy of the ‘wonderful words of life.’”[7]

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
22 December 2020

Footnotes:

  1. J.H. Hall, “P.P. Bliss,” Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers (NY: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1914), p. 180: Archive.org

  2. “Religious: Noon Prayer Meeting,” Chicago Tribune (28 March 1877), p. 8: PDF

  3. George C. Stebbins, Reminiscences and Gospel Hymn Stories (NY: George H. Doran, 1924), pp. 91–92.

  4. William Lock, “Wonderful Words of Life,” The Worshiping Church: Worship Leaders’ Edition (Carol Stream, IL: Hope, 1990), no. 309.

  5. Robert Cottrill, “Wonderful Words of Life,” Wordwise Hymns (6 June 2011): https://wordwisehymns.com/2011/06/06/wonderful-words-of-life/

  6. Charles H. Spurgeon, “The first recorded words of Jesus: A sermon delivered on Lord’s-Day morning, June 25th, 1882,” Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 28 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1882/3), pp. 350–351.

  7. William J. Reynolds, “A Sunday School song,” Songs of Glory (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1990), p. 250.

Related Resources:

“The Revival Meetings,” Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT: 21 Feb. 1878), p. 1: PDF

Ira Sankey, “Wonderful Words of Life,” My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1906), pp. 309–310: Archive.org

Hugh T. McElrath, “Sing them over again to me,” Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (Nashville: Convention Press, 1992), pp. 230–231.

“Wonderful Words of Life,” Hymnary.org: https://hymnary.org/text/sing_them_over_again_to_me_wonderful