Although he received practically no musical education, except from occasional attendance at a singing school, he wrote his first song at the age of twenty-six years. It was called “Lora Vale,” and because of its popular reception, Bliss was encouraged to devote all his time to writing songs and giving concerts.
Bliss usually wrote both the words and music of his hymns. His work was done very quickly, the inspiration for the whole song, text and melody, being born in his mind at once.
Any incident of an unusually impressive nature would immediately suggest a theme to his mind. He heard the story of a shipwreck. The doomed vessel was abandoned, and the captain ordered the sailors to exert their utmost strength to “pull for the shore.” Immediately he wrote his well-known song with the words as a refrain.
One night he listened to a sermon in which the preacher closed with the words, “He who is almost persuaded is almost saved, but to be almost saved is to be entirely lost.” He went home from the service and wrote “Almost persuaded,” a hymn that is said to have brought more souls to Christ than anything else Bliss ever composed.
In 1870 he heard Major Whittle, an evangelist, tell the story of how the message, “Hold the fort!” was signalled to the besieged garrison at Allatoona Pass. The words suggested the passage from Revelations 2:25, “That which ye have, hold fast till I come.” The result was one of his most famous Gospel songs, the chorus of which runs:
“Hold the fort, for I am coming,”
Jesus signals still,
Wave the answer back to heaven,—
“By Thy grace we will.”
Other popular songs by Bliss are “Whosoever heareth, shout, shout the sound,” “I am so glad that our Father in heaven,” “There’s a light in the valley,” “Sing them over again to me,” “Let the lower lights be burning,” “Free from the law, Oh, happy condition,” “Down life’s dark vale we wander” and “Where hast thou gleaned today?”