S. O’Maley Cluff
A favorite prayer-meeting hymn for many years, in many churches.
Sankey came across these words in a printed leaflet while he was on his first visit with D. L. Moody to Ireland in 1874. It was the second hymn to which he wrote music and was much used in later Moody-Sankey revival services.
No definite information has been traced by hymnologists concerning Samuel O’Malley Clough to whom the words are attributed. He is believed to have been an Irish clergyman who left the Established Church to unite with the Plymouth Brethren in Ireland; later (1881) seceding from that body to lead a “holiness” schism which has since become extinct. Julian and others spell the name “Clough”; Sankey spells it “Cluff.”
MUSIC. CLUFF derives its name from the author of the words to which Sankey set the tune.
Ira David Sankey, 1840-1908, famous singer of “gospel songs,” was born in Edinburg, Pa., and was a member of the Methodist Church. For many years he was associated with D. L. Moody in evangelistic work in America and England. He composed many gospel tunes, the most popular of which is his “Ninety and Nine,” and edited numerous songbooks. Concerning his own gift of singing and songs suited to his purpose, he wrote:
I am no musician, I am no singer; I was never taught to sing.... As to my singing there is no art or conscious design in it. I never touch a song that does not speak to me in every word and phrase. Before I sing I must feel, and the hymn must be of such a kind that I know I can send home what I feel into the hearts of those who listen. I find it much more difficult to get good words than good music. Our best words come from England; the music which best suits our purpose comes from America. Your composers, apparently, do not care to write simple songs such as we need. We can get plenty of the grand and solid style, but though that is useful now and again, our services could not thrive on it.
Homer Rodeheaver has used this song with antiphonal effects by letting the choir sing the first phrase of the refrain, the audience responding with the second; or, if the audience is large, letting one side, then the other side, then the whole congregation, then the gallery sing, successively, one phrase each of the refrain.
461. A ruler once came to Jesus by night
W. T. Sleeper