Transforming Moments for September 26 2006

His name was Phillip Bliss, and he is the second most famous hymn writer in American history, followed only by the brilliant blind songstress Fanny Crosby. Some of the hymns he wrote that we still sing today are greats like Hallelujah, What a Savior, Redeemed, and Wonderful Words of Life. Bliss also wrote the melody to It Is Well With My Soul. Dedicating his life to the ministry at a revival service, he left a prosperous business behind and was known around the world at age 38. Phillip Bliss boarded a train on the night of December 29 1876. That train ran off a trestle in a snowstorm at midnight, and both Bliss and his young wife plummeted to their deaths. The next day, his luggage arrived at his destination on another train. In it was the last hymn he ever wrote. It began, “I know not what awaits me. God kindly veils my eyes.” Phillip Bliss didn’t know death awaited him that night, but he lived with such focus that, when the time came, no verses in his life song had yet to be written. Could the same be said about you and me?