The words of this popular song of testimony were written by Philip Paul Bliss. He was part of a notable group of 19th-century evangelists and musicians based in Chicago. Among them were D. L. Moody, Ira Sankey, Major D. W. Whittle, James McGranahan, George Stebbins, and Charles Gabriel.
Known as P. P. Bliss in hymnody, he was born in a log cabin in Pennsylvania in 1838. From his early childhood, he had a great interest in music. The story is told that at the age of ten, he was excited to hear a piano for the first time, and he walked into the house where the music was coming from and sat down to listen. When the music stopped, he cried out, “Oh, lady, play some more.” She responded by sending him home. At the age of eleven, he attended a singing school conducted by hymn writer William Bradbury.
In 1858, Bliss was working on a farm in Pennsylvania, where he fell in love with the owner’s daughter; they were married a year later. During the winter months, he was an itinerant music teacher, traveling from place to place with a small folding organ. He composed simple songs to be used in Sunday school and soon became a renowned musician with a promising career.
Bliss and his wife moved to Chicago, and he continued to sing and write songs. He became good friends with Evangelist D. L. Moody, who introduced him to Evangelist Major D. W. Whittle. Bliss was becoming a sought-after gospel singer, and Major Whittle invited him to sing at a convention where the evangelist was speaking. Moody and other friends encouraged Bliss to give up teaching and become a singing evangelist. In 1874, Bliss surrendered to the Lord and went into full-time ministry. Many souls were saved as he and Major Whittle ministered together throughout America. In September of 1876, Bliss met with Moody in Chicago, and they planned to hold the meetings in the city right after the Christmas holidays and then make a trip to England.
Bliss and his wife spent Christmas with his parents at his childhood home in Pennsylvania. They needed to return to Chicago since the meetings at Moody’s Tabernacle were to begin the next Sunday. As they boarded the train to Chicago, they hugged their two sons, who were staying behind with their grandparents.
The Blisses never got back home. A bridge in Ohio gave way, and the train plunged sixty feet below into the icy waters. The coaches burst into flames, and many people were killed immediately in the burning wreckage. Bliss escaped through a window, but when he returned to rescue his wife, both perished in the fire.
Among the belongings found in Bliss’s trunk was the manuscript for what would become the popular song of testimony, “I Will Sing of My Redeemer.” It’s not known when Bliss wrote the text or if he had composed music for it. The tune “My Redeemer” was composed by James McGranahan, who succeeded Bliss as Major Whittle’s song leader and soloist. A few months later, George Stebbins, gospel song writer, composer, and singing evangelist, sang and recorded the song in New York City, where Edison’s phonograph was being introduced. It was one of the first songs recorded on it.
It was said that at his last meeting in Chicago before the fatal accident, Bliss told the crowd, “I don’t know as I shall ever sing here again, but I want to sing this as the language of my heart.” He then sang the solo, “I’m Going Home Tomorrow.” He was aware that no one knows the future except the Lord. He’d faithfully served a God who turns tragedy into triumph. Out of the wreckage of a train and the loss of a thirty-eight-year-old man at the height of his ministry came a song of testimony that has been sung around the world for more than one hundred years. The song is a simple testimony of Christ’s atonement and pardon that encourages believers to tell others the “wondrous story.” Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:14)
1.I will sing of my Redeemer
And his wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross he suffered,
From the curse to set me free.
Refrain:
Sing, oh! sing of my Redeemer,
With his blood, he purchased me,
On the cross he sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.
2.I will tell the wondrous story,
How, my lost estate to save,
In his boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave.
3.I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant pow’r I’ll tell,
How the victory he giveth
Over sin, and death, and hell.
4.I will sing of my Redeemer,
And his heav’nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God, with him to be.
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