“A lady was so struck with it that she had it printed as a leaflet and widely circulated without any idea by whom it was composed. It happened rather curiously that while we were living at Torquay, our valued Christian physician came to us one morning, having in his hand this leaflet. He offered it to my sister, saying, ‘I am sure this will please you;’ and great indeed was his astonishment on finding that it was written by herself, though by what means it had been thus printed and circulated she was utterly ignorant. Shortly after we became acquainted with the lady who had printed it.”
Mr. Sankey saved many hymns from obscurity by singing them at the Moody meetings. Here is the story of
“Throw Out the Lifeline”
This hymn and the tune were written by the Rev. E. S. Ufford of Springfield, Massachusetts, although it was greatly popularized by Mr. Sankey’s singing of it with such signal results. Mr. Ufford relates that he lived for many years near the seashore in a little village thirteen miles from Boston. In the summer he would often stroll along the beach and see an old wreck half hidden in the sands and rubbish and wonder whether such a wreck might have been avoided if a life line had been thrown out to the passengers and crew. He wished that he might write a hymn with a searching message. After a meeting held on the sands by the old wreck, he offered the help of the Gospel to the wrecks of manhood who were present.
The inspiration of this service so stirred him that he sat down and in fifteen minutes wrote four stanzas of the hymn which has justly become famous. Sankey got hold of this hymn and at once began to sing it. It was Moody’s favorite. When Mr. Ufford later took a trip round the world the fact that he was the author of this hymn gave him a welcome everywhere. It was his privilege to hear it sung by the natives of Honolulu in their own tongue.
Mr. Sankey also popularized another hymn which he casually came across
In a Newspaper
It was in 1874 that he discovered “The Ninety and Nine” in a weekly newspaper which he bought at the Glasgow railway station. He cut out this poem, hoping to use it if he could get a suitable tune. After an address on “The Good Shepherd,” Mr. Moody turned to him with the request for an appropriate solo. To quote his own words: “At this moment I seemed to hear a voice saying, ‘Sing the hymn you found in the train.’ I thought this impossible as no music had been written for the hymn. Again the impression came strongly upon me that I must sing the beautiful appropriate words I had found the day before, and placing the little newspaper slip on the organ, I lifted my heart in prayer, asking God to help me to sing that the people might hear and understand. Laying my hands on the organ, I struck the chord of A flat and began the song. Note by note the tune was given, which has not been changed from that day to this. Mr. Moody was greatly moved. Leaning over the organ, he looked at the little newspaper slip, and with tears in his eyes said, ‘Sankey, where did you get that hymn? I never heard the like of it in my life.’”
This hymn was written by Miss Elizabeth C. Clephane of Melrose, Scotland, who died in 1869. Her sister was present at this noon meeting at the Free Assembly Hall, and later wrote to Mr. Sankey, thanking him for singing the hymn.
Here is another story by Andrew Stewart in The British Weekly about these same meetings and how the hymn