Hallelujah! What a Savior

Man of sorrows, what a name

I. Origins

In 1875, gospel composer Philip P. Bliss (1838–1876) had a strong career trajectory. The previous year, he had decided to give his full attention to singing in the evangelistic campaigns of D.W. Whittle (1840–1901) and D.L. Moody (1837–1899), usually with his wife at his side, Lucy (Young) Bliss. Together with Ira Sankey, he launched a new series of songbooks, Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs (1875). At some point during or between campaigns in Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington (March 1875), Nashville and Memphis (April), Syracuse (June), or perhaps at his home office in Chicago, he penned one of his most enduring hymns, “Man of sorrows, what a name” (“Hallelujah! What a Savior”).

Bliss’s hymn was first published in a new periodical, International Lesson Monthly (1875 | Fig. 1), produced by F.H. Revell and edited by B.F. Jacobs in Chicago. An announcement in the Sunday School Journal, March 1875, said:

It is fresh, progressive, wise, sensible, and we hope the publisher may succeed in his new venture. B.F. Jacobs, W.F. Crafts, Mrs. S.J. Crafts, and P.P. Bliss are certainly very attractive names.[1]

Bliss assisted by writing a hymn every month to coordinate with the lessons in the periodical. “Man of sorrows, what a name” appeared in the October 1875 issue, probably intended to support a lesson on John 12:22–33, which includes these key verses:

The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. . . . Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.

MNoSR WaN

Fig. 1. The International Lesson Monthly, vol. 1, no. 10 (F.H. Revell: Chicago, Oct. 1875).

The hymn was thereafter included in Gospel Hymns No. 2 (Chicago: Biglow & Main, 1876 | Fig. 2). In that printing, it was headed with Isaiah 53:3, reflecting the first line of the song. Bliss also added expression marks (Moderato, p, m, f, ff).

In the British version of these songbooks, the hymn first appeared in Later Songs and Solos (ca. 1877).

II. Legacy

Bliss’s hymn had a profound and memorable impact on his ministry. His colleague D.W. Whittle later wrote about how they had used the song in an evangelistic campaign in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in October of 1876:

October 21st, the brethren separated for their different posts near Chicago. Mr. Bliss went to Kalamazoo, Michigan, Mrs. Bliss accompanying him. . . . He sang in the young ladies’ seminary, and at the Baptist College [Kalamazoo College], and in many private residences to the sick and invalid ones. The dear friend there who for seven years or more has been confined to his room, will well remember the sunshiny day when Mr. Bliss came and sang to him the “Ninety and Nine,” “Hallelujah, what a Savior,” and how, in the seasons of prayer and reading the word that followed his visit, he gave his heart to the Lord. In a little while, he will cross the tide, and will know in its fullness the truth, “Hallelujah, what a Savior.”[2]

Bliss wrote to his mother about his experience in Kalamazoo in a letter dated 3 November 1876. He enclosed a copy of his hymn.

We have been here two weeks, and about the best two weeks we ever had. Your prayers are being answered, and I am thankful for a mother who prays. . . . Oh! what a privilege to live in these days and to be in any way connected with such a work of grace! . . . How good He is. What grace! What grace! I send you a song, “Hallelujah, what a Savior!” . . . Don’t know how long we’ll stay here, nor where we’ll go next. Anywhere with Jesus.[3]

Two weeks later, 19 November 1876, Bliss sang it for a prison gathering in Jackson, Michigan:

The Michigan State Prison is located at Jackson, and on both Sunday mornings of Mr. Bliss’ stay in the city, he conducted service for the eight hundred inmates there. The most tender, eloquent, and earnest appeal that could have possibly been made to sinners to accept the love of Christ was made by him at his last meeting with these dear men, Sunday morning, November 19th. . . . The Spirit of God was upon Mr. Bliss that morning in that prison, and as he spoke and as he sang, the hearts of those hardened men melted like wax. Defiant faces softened, and grew beautiful with earnest, tender, sympathetic feeling. The animal and sensuous expression predominant in many faces passed away, as they looked upon that earnest face, and saw the tears falling as he plead with them of Christ’s love, and then sang, as if singing for God alone:

Man of Sorrows. What a name
For the Son of God, who came
Rebel sinners to reclaim,
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Two-thirds of the men there seemed quite broken down by the reality of the things of God. They never will forget the service of that hour.[4]

After leaving Jackson, Mr. and Mrs. Bliss returned to Chicago and had another deeply spiritual experience:

The meeting in Jackson closed November 21st, and Mr. and Mrs. Bliss came to Chicago to attend the Christian Convention called by Mr. Moody. During the session he made an address upon the use of song in worship, and sang at the prayer meeting of ministers in Farwell Hall, presided over by Mr. Moody, on the morning of November 24th. Over a thousand ministers were present, and the intense spiritual feeling prevailing found fit expression through Bliss in song. After he had sung “Are your windows open toward Jerusalem?” his own soul thrilled by the conscious presence of the Holy Spirit, one dear minister cried out, “God bless Mr. Bliss for that song;” and scores of amens came from as many earnest, tender hearts. This was the last time he sang in Chicago. None who were present in Farwell Hall that forenoon will ever forget the power with which he sang. Mr. Moody leaned forward in his chair, occupied with the song and the singer, and overcome by the feeling produced by the music and the sentiment of the hymn.[5]

Philip and Lucy Bliss died in a tragic train accident in Ashtabula, Ohio, a few weeks later, 29 December 1876. Looking back, Ira Sankey remembered the event at Farwell Hall and one song in particular:

“‘Man of Sorrows,’ what a name for the Son of God, who came.” This was the last hymn I heard Mr. Bliss sing. It was at a meeting in Farwell Hall in Chicago, conducted by Henry Moorhouse. A few weeks before his death Mr. Bliss visited the State prison at Jackson, Michigan, where, after a very touching address on “The Man of Sorrows,” he sang this hymn with great effect. Many of the prisoners dated their conversion from that day.[6]

Among the memorial tributes, Rev. Mr. Thompson of the First Baptist Church, Peoria, Illinois, offered this impression of Bliss:

Mr. Bliss was a man of tender sympathy. Knowing sorrow himself, he felt for others; feeling tenderly himself the love of Christ, he desired all others to know the same. A man of eminent abilities, he was humble and trustful, and gave all glory to his God. How his face would glow as he sang “Hallelujah, what a Savior.” How my own soul felt as he sang his thrilling songs. I am told wherever he went in domestic life he left the savor of his Savior behind a consecrated life.[7]

III. Analysis

This hymn explores the depth and height of Christ’s redemptive work. The first four stanzas are a meditation on the cross, but end of the fourth flips the script and reveals the outcome, with Christ now exalted in heaven, and the fifth stanza pictures a triumphant return. This grand shift of stature is described in Philippians 2:5–11, which is sometimes called the Great Reversal. The opening line of the hymn is a direct reference to Isaiah 53:3, and some other lines in the hymn reflect ideas found in successive verses, especially the substitutionary atonement described in 53:4–5. The “spotless Lamb” in stanza 3 is a nod to 1 Peter 1:19, and the cry “It is finished” refers to John 19:30.

The tune is most often known as HALLELUJAH! WHAT A SAVIOR, but also MAN OF SORROWS, or in England, GETHSEMANE. Much like Bliss’s tune for “It is well with my soul,” it shows a compositional prowess beyond the predominant offerings of the period, which were often limited to simple progressions using I, IV, and V. Hymn scholar Harry Eskew said, “its even-note rhythms and varied harmonies overall are more typical of the churchly hymn tunes of an earlier era.”[8] His harmonic technique lends a sense of grandeur and gravitas to his vivid text. The hymn is unique in the way it was published with dynamic markings, with each stanza intended to progress from piano to mezzo to forte to fortissimo.

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
25 March 2021

Addendum

For a modern added refrain, we recommend Travis Cottrell’s arrangement, as in the anthem “What a Friend,” written for the musical 3:16, the Numbers of Hope (Nashville: Genevox, 2007).

Footnotes:

J.H. Vincent & J.M. Freeman, eds., Sunday School Journal for Teachers and Young People, vol. 7, no. 3 (March 1875), p. 72: Google Books; see also The National Sunday School Teacher, vol. 12, no. 7 (July 1877), pp. 284–285: Google Books
D.W. Whittle, Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss (NY: A.S. Barnes, 1877), p. 77: Archive.org
D.W. Whittle, Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss (NY: A.S. Barnes, 1877), p. 248: Archive.org
D.W. Whittle, Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss (NY: A.S. Barnes, 1877), pp. 80–81: Archive.org
D.W. Whittle, Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss (NY: A.S. Barnes, 1877), p. 83: Archive.org
Ira Sankey, My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns (Philadelphia: Sunday School Times, 1906), p. 146: Archive.org; see also D.W. Whittle, Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss (1877), p. 168: Archive.org
D.W. Whittle, Memoirs of Philip P. Bliss (NY: A.S. Barnes, 1877), p. 361: Archive.org
Harry Eskew, “Man of sorrows, what a name,” Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (Nashville: Convention Press, 1992), p. 188.

Related Resources:

The International Lesson Monthly, vol. 1, no. 10 (Chicago: F.H. Revell, Oct. 1875): PDF

Carlton R. Young, “Man of sorrows, what a name,” Companion to the United Methodist Hymnal (Nahsville: Abingdon, 1993), pp. 385–386.

Edward Darling & Donald Davison, “Man of sorrows, what a name,” Companion to Church Hymnal (Dublin: Columba, 2005), pp. 332–333.