A Great Soul-Winner Gone Home Charles M . Alexander, the Greatest Song Leader of His Generation, is Mourned Around the World By DR. R. A . TORREY
sang myself hoarse and suffered in my preaching for two weeks in consequence. I knew better than to sing, but I had to. Thp “Glory Song” from th a t night on became the most popular song in Mel bourne and soon throughout all Aus tralia and soon throughout all the world. Maids were singing it as they swept the rooms and made the beds in hotels. Por ters were singing it as they trundled trunks; newsboys were singing it as they peddled papers on the street; law yers and doctors and bankers and busi ness men were a t least humming it as they went about their work. But as great a Gospel song-leader as Mr. Alexander was, his chief strength did not lie in that. Where did it lie? In his untiring devotion to personal soul winning. We have known intimately some of the greatest soul-winners in modern history but do not recall anyone who was so everlastingly a t dealing with individuals as Mr. Alexander. Mr. Alex ander was of an unusually genial dis position and loved to go to the homes of people, even people with whom he had little acquaintance, but we do not think he ever entered a home where he did not do personal work before he left the home with practically everyone he came in contact with. It might be a baron or baroness, an earl or countess, or it might be a coachman or the “boots,” it mattered not. He only saw a soul to save and immediately began to lay his plans for the salvation of that soul. Of ficers in the Scotch and English armies, private soldiers, university professors, sportsmen, society women, actors and all classes and kinds of men, women and children came under the sway of his magnetic personality. He was one of
BOUT two o’clock on the morn ing of October 13th, 1920, a man who has set the whole English-speaking world to singing “Glory,” passed into Glory himself, Charles M. Alexander. Mr. Alexander was
beyond a question the greatest Gospel song-leader of his generation. Indeed, we think he was the greatest Gospel song-leader of any generation. The writer of this editorial has been inti mately associated with Ira D. Sankey, George Stebbins and D. B. Towner. He has seen them and heard them a t their best and has also been intimately as sociated with Mr. Alexander and has no hesitation in saying th a t in power, in training large choirs and getting them to sing, and in turning a whole con gregation into a choir, Mr. Alexander was unquestionably peerless. We shall never forget the first night in Melbourne, Australia.. In inviting me to Australia, the Evangelistic Society had left it with me to decide whether I should bring a singer or not and when I decided to take Mr. Alexander, there was no enthusiasm on the other side of the water and not a few regarded him with coldness if not with suspicion. But that first night he carried Melbourne by storm. He had everyone singing, includ ing the dignified Doctors of Divinity and Clergy of the Church of England. Min isters, singers and crowd were critical for a few minutes and then with a burst of joy and enthusiasm, such as I have seldom witnessed, the whole vast audi ence was swept off its feet. Everybody was in the choir. Men and women who had probably not sung a note for years were joining lustily in the melody. I
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