This Article May Surprise You

By William Elbert Munsey, 1833-1877

EDITOR’S NOTE: Special thanks for my former association with Dr. John R. Rice and the paper he founded, The Sword of the Lord, for introducing me to the messages of Dr. William Elbert Munsey.  Munsey was a popular Methodist minister, born on July 13, 1833 and died October 3, 1877 (44 years).  He was converted to Christ at age 17 during a Methodist camp meeting.  He taught school and served a number of small churches before his well-prepared and powerful sermons were discovered by greater numbers.  His church services were packed and people crowded his meetings two hours before he would speak.   Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. asked Dr. Rice to publish a book of sermons by Dr. Munsey.  That book, Eternal Retribution!, was first published in 1951.  In his remarks, Dr. Jones reported that the sermons in this book were taken from a two-volume set (I believe the only books credited to Dr. Munsey) of remarkable sermons.  I searched the Internet for the books and found a used book store offering them in their original covers.  I purchased them;  amazingly at a very low cost.  It appears that everything Dr. Jones and Dr. Rice knew about Mr. Munsey was taken from these two volumes.  I am happy to own them and pleased to present this stirring message, The Resurrection of the Human Body.  An excellent message for Easter, or for any occasion. 

“How are the dead raised up? and with what  body do they come?”

I Cor. 5:35

  William Elbert Munsey

WE are all standing upon the threshold of an awful future, replete with facts and instinct with entities, about which we know but little. Let but the heart cease its beating, or one vital function of this body cease its office, and we are gone-gone! to grapple with the stern truths of ages, at once interminable, inconceivable, unknown.

 ” To be or not to be,” after death, is answered, and nearly all men, though with different degrees of faith, are looking confidently to an existence beyond the grave.

The idea of immortality has descended down the stream of human generations from the first pair in Paradise, running down every branch from the central tide, disappearing in one, corrupted in another, and becoming more lucid and sat­isfactory in another, to the present age. It is seen in the language, literature, and manners of every age; in the his­tory, philosophy, and poetry of every people. It is seen in the retributive horrors of Tartarus, the rich fields and streams of Elysium, the Hesperian seas and islets of the Red man, the heaven and hell of the Christians.

 But the heathen apply the idea of immortality to the soul only. The ancient heathen complained that the sun went down at night, and arose in the morning, but their friends went down in the gloomy darkness of death, and rose no more. They saw upon the face of every mysterious Provi­dence which swept the earth, in bold and living colors the pencillings of immortality: they felt the truth attested within by an instinctive shrinking back from annihilation, yet the tomb was invested with an eternal darkness, and the body surrendered to a perpetual sleep. With them the night of death was starless: there was no anticipated morning whose auroral splendors would break in upon the darkness of the grave, and hang the rainbow of hope over the dust of the dead.

 The idea of the resurrection of the body does not appear to have occurred to them. To what source is the world then indebted for its existence? Not to reason, for the mind has not the requisite data; not to nature, for it is super-nature; not to science, for it is beyond the province of science; but to the Bible. It is the great fact recognized in the text, and is purely a subject of revelation. Let semi-infidel divines seek for the evidences of the resurrection elsewhere; it is only found in the Bible. I Would not exclude those rich illustrations corroborating Bible fact, which pour from every department in philosophic and material existence-no; but I appeal to the Bible, proven as it is to be the Word of God, as the highest evidence of the resurrection of the dead.

Hear with what authority it speaks: “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise” (Isa. 26:19). “Dead men”! “Dead bodies”! “They shall arise!”-”He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His spirit that dwelleth in you”(Rom. 8:11).  “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2) “Asleep”! “Awake”!  ”The hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth” (John 5:28, 29). / Such announcements, my hearers, have kindled a smile upon the brow of bereave­ment, and a star in the graves of the departed.

 This doctrine being peculiar to Christianity and having nothing analogous in nature, has been a favorite object of attack by every school of Infidels since its announcement. It is condemned as false, because it involves a mystery. This argument is of no force unless it is true universally, unless every other thing which involves a mystery is false too. If it is true universally, if every thing which involves a mystery is false, then there is nothing true in the universe. The argument proves too much, therefore is worth nothing.

 The objector confounds two things very essentially differ­ent; mystery as to fact, and mystery as to a mode. A fact may be plain, while the manner of its production may be mysterious. The doctrine of the resurrection is a doctrine of fact, and as such is clear, but its mode is mysterious. The objector confounds mystery with absurdity. An absurd­ity is something contradictory in its very nature to human reason and common sense, such as supposing an effect greater than its cause; a mystery is something beyond human comprehension on the account of its magnitude, or the rela­tion it sustains to Infinite Power. The resurrection of the human body is not an absurdity, for it is not contrary to human reason; but a mystery, for it involves the agency of infinite power to accomplish it. A doctrine whose founda­tion stone is Omnipotence, could not from its nature be sub­jected to the feeble rules and restrictions of reason.

 To deny the truth of the resurrection because its mode is a mystery to us, is to say that a finite mind is equal in discovering and investigating power to all difficulties in­volved in the existence and nature of any truth, however in­timate its relations to the great infinite, either in being or principle.

 Another objector says, the resurrection contradicts the great principles of science. No science is perfect: it has been the business of one age to modify and improve the science^. of the past age; a future age will but expose the learned follies of this. Science is scarcely out of its swad­dling-clothes. Is it entitled to more credence than the Bible? Must this old Book, hoary with the age of centuries, written by the finger of inspiration, born at Sinai, completed amid the splendors of the Apocalypse, whose footprints are seen in the crumbled dust of earth’s wrecked and mined greatness, whose teachings are Godlike, whose precepts are thunder-given, whose promises are the hope of the world, fly the stage before the gorgeous diction and sacrilegious pre­tensions of an ungodly and pseudo-philosophy?

 But I could never see any point or relevancy in the objec­tion. In what department of true science are those princi­ples found and taught, conflicting with the doctrine of the resurrection? I appeal to all the tomes in the wide range of scientific lore for an answer-they are nowhere. All science is founded upon the discoveries of sense; and if it teaches such principles, it has exceeded its province, there­fore it is no argument. Revelation is the only oracle of our faith, and the proper tribunal before which to refer our theological questions. It is under its potent influence alone that life and immortality become divine realities. To go to science to settle matters of faith, is like going to a diction­ary to learn history, or to geology to learn mathematics.

 Again, the objector says, it is contrary to our experience. But the great error in the objection is, that the objector as­sumes that his individual experience is the universal expe­rience of the race. The exact and entire experience of an individual now is unlike in many respects the experience of his contemporaries; how much more is it unlike the experi­ences of men in different ages of the world, and in different stages of its development. It does not follow because the tawny son of the tropics has never seen the earth whitened with snow, that the Laplander has not seen. it; neither does it follow because we never saw a man raised from the dead, that the Apostles did not see it.

 Again, it is urged that the resurrection is contrary to the immutability of the laws of nature. This argument is of no force, for the resurrection is not to be brought about by the regular action of the laws of cause and effect, but by a super­natural power.  ”Do ye not therefore err,” said Christ to the Sadducees, “because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God?”  ”Why should it be thought incredible with you,” says Paul, “that God should raise the dead?”  It is a provision of Redemption, hence above nature and na­ture’s laws, yet not contradictory to them, to either nature or its laws. It is a provision of a supernatural plan coming down upon nature, and entering in unity with it; into the unity of God’s grand system, embracing the material, immaterial, and moral.

 Another objection is, the resurrection of the dead is because this body continually changes its sub­stances, so that the bodies we now have are not the same we had a few years ago, nor will be the same a few years hence -that the bodies in which we have sinned or acted right­eously may not be in many instances the same bodies as those which will be actually rewarded and punished. This argument contradicts the infidel’s own theory of the seat of personal identity, transferring the ego from the soul, the only true subject of reward and punishment, to the body, which is rewarded and punished simply as the instrument.

 Such an argument would liberate in a few years every crim­inal in the world. Why retain a man in prison longer than the time afforded by this supposition for a perfect and entire change of the substance of his body? Know you not at the expiration of the hypothetical number of seven years that he is immaculate unless he sinned during his imprisonment? that there is not a particle of that guilty body which was incarcerated?  Open your state prisons and penitentiaries, and let their hordes out upon society, they are innocent. The same argument would so affect the proceedings of our criminal courts, that judge and jury would have to exercise great care to know how much of the guilty body was ar­raigned at the bar, if any, in order to mete out the ends of justice.

 Such an argument, though popular and common, contra­dicts common sense, the common consciousness and experi­ence of mankind. Again, it would apply with equal force against the resurrection of Christ. His body, according to this hypothesis, changed several times, at least four times. Yet what body did he bring up?  This brings us to the true and Scriptural answer to the objection-the same body he laid down in the grave.

 We have an evidence of the resurrection of the human body in the resurrection of Christ.  ”Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.”  ”If Christ rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there be no res­urrection of the dead, ‘then is not Christ risen.” (I Cor. 15:12,13). The resurrection of the race follows naturally from the resur­rection of Christ. This is clear from the federal representa­tive nature of Christ. The relations he sustains from his fed­eral representative nature to Adam proves it. If Adam in his representative character brought death into the world by his fall, and died himself, it is reasonable that Christ, in his representative character, should by his life, death, and resur­rection bring life into the world. The relation he sustains from his federal representative nature to us proves it. Being our second federal Head, and Heaven-appointed Proto-

 type, and that he did take upon himself a human body, and resumed that body after it had lain in the grave, exalted it to heaven, changed and glorified, is powerful evidence that our bodies too shall be raised, changed, and glorified, and dwell with His forever.

 Again, if it was necessary for Christ, to complete the plan of salvation, to be raised from the dead, it is also necessary, to complete the execution of the plan, that man also should be raised, and furthermore if he was able to raise himself, he is able to raise others. Such is the argument of Paul, hence he adduces as his principal evidence the fact, that Jesus rose from the dead. His resurrection is the type of ours. Part of our nature is in heaven ; the exaltation of a part argues the exaltation of the whole. The Great Head of the church has gone up, and the body must follow. He is, as the Apos­tle expresses it, “The first fruits-of them that slept.”

 The Jews were commanded to cut the first ripening grain in their fields and take it to Jerusalem, and lay it upon the altar as a pledge of the coming harvest and as a thank offer­ing to God. At the end of the harvest they all again met at Jerusalem to celebrate the harvest feast; which they did with sacrifices and thanksgiving for many days. Now Christ the “first fruits” lays upon God’s altar in heaven, as a pledge of that glorious harvest at the end of the world, which will leave every old tomb tenantless, and gather us all, soul and body both, redeemed and glorified into heaven.

 The scheme of human redemption necessarily embraces the resurrection of the human body. Its provisions extend to the body, as well as to the soul. Hear the Scriptures: “Ye are not your own, but are bought with a price; therefore glorify God with your body and your spirit, which are God’s.” (I Cor. 6:19, 20).  Both body and soul are God’s.  both bought by the blood of Jesus. Surely a body bought by the blood of Christ, especially when that body has been the sanctified temple of the Holy Ghost, cannot perish for­ever.  ”We wait for the adoption, to wit, the ‘redemp­tion of the body.” (Rom. 8:23). “I am the resurrection and the life,” Christ exclaims. No mistaking his meaning, for he is speaking with reference to Lazarus. Peter and John “preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead.” (Acts 4:2). If through Christ, it is embraced in Redemp­tion.     ”Christ bath abolished death and both brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (2 Tim.1:10).

 The seat of self-consciousness, or personal identity, is in the soul, yet the body is an integral and essential part of the constitution of man. God doubtlessly designed in the creation of man the blending of the two great elements of His universe, the spiritual and material, into one creature. This is clear from the very facts of the case; the creation of pure spirits, the creation of simple matter, and the creation of the dual nature of man, compounded of both. Man ap­pears to be the central link, uniting the spiritual and material, in the grand chain of life and existence, sweeping from the throne of God down through every rank and order of beings, by regular gradations to the passive sod upon which we walk. This being true, it follows naturally that the body is an as essential part of man’s constitution as is his soul-that he would not be man without a body. If this conclusion be true again it follows, if man is redeemed, the plan affecting such work must include the body as well as the soul, or man is but half redeemed, and the plan is but half a plan.

 Again, God’s whole system, spiritual and material, em­bracing His government of both, is a unity-a well-balanced, symmetrical, magnificent unity. The creation of a bifold being, possessing in unity in his constitution the two prime elements of God’s grand system, appears to be necessary to the unity of the whole. Now such a creature was man, for he is both spiritual and material. Such being his nature, it is presumptive that as a compound, God intended he should be immortal. In fact, such is the teaching of the Scriptures. Now sin entered the world, a foreign element in the Divine system, and being a violation of law, the basis of all order, naturally produced disorganization and death. It naturally destroyed the compound nature of man by separating his soul and body. Man was destroyed; the design of God was thwarted; and His system lost its unity–results not obvi­ated by the salvation of every disembodied soul in heaven.

 Such were the effects of sin, and the nature of God, and the nature of things required that it should be expunged out of His entire system. He could have destroyed sin by the destruction of everything which it had effected. He could have hurled His unbalanced system into nihilism. He had the power to do both, and His nature would have justified the action. But He of His own free will and grace chose to establish a redemptive and compensatory dispensation, according to the laws of His system itself, extending its pro­visions throughout the entire system, and touching with its restoring power everything which sin had touched-restoring man, establishing and perfecting His original designs, and readjusting the disturbed relations of universal being-He chose to establish a redemptive and compensatory dispensa­tion constituting within itself a complete remedy for the evils of sin.

 A dispensation countervailing the influences of sin; one which would neutralize its poison and destroy the mephitic exhalations in man’s moral atmosphere; one which would track with angel wing and purifying power the paths of its corruption, and extract the cancerous fibres of the deadly phagedena from the system and government of God, and cast it, its author, and children into Topher, and wall it up and arch it over, to rankle in its own corruption in eternal isolation.

 Now I ask you, is man restored to his original position as man, is the apparent design of God in man’s creation main­tained, and the unity of His system restored, if the body, one of the essentials of man’s constitution, one of the essentials of God’s original design, one of the essentials to the unity of His system, is never to be raised from the dead and united with the soul?  No; Christ Must save man in all the ele­ments of which man’s is compounded, or His mission is a failure. The objector is driven to the alternative of impeach­ing the remedial character and perfection of the atonement, or contradicting the Bible and the philosophy of the case, deny that death came by sin. Which choose ye?

 Christ himself taught by words and actions that the resurrection of the body was included in the great work of which he was the subject. There was a pleasant little family in the town of Bethany, nearly two miles from Jerusalem, which Jesus loved-two sisters, and one brother-Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. In Jesus’ absence Lazarus died, and was buried in a cave, and covered with a stone. Jesus heard of it, and he and his disciples started for the scene of mourning, and arrived at Bethany four days after the burial. Before he entered the town, Martha heard of his coming and went to meet him: “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”  ”Thy brother shall rise again.”  “I know he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day,” says Martha. “I am the resurrection and the life,” says Christ.

Martha runs and tells Mary, for many Jews were, present,  “The Master is come and calleth for thee.” Mary rose up hastily and ran to meet him, and fell down at his feet: “Lord, if thou hadst been here my brother had not died.” Mary wept, the Jews who had followed her wept, and “Jesus wept.”  ”Where have ye laid him?”  ”Come and see.” They went to the cave: “Take ye away the stone,” and Jesus prayed:    ”Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me; and I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.”

 Then Jesus cried with a voice, which one day will pour its trumpet thunders throughout the vast charnel-house of the dead and bid us all live, “Lazarus, come forth,”-and the pulse of immortality began its vibrations in the grave, and the sheeted dead came forth alive. That one dead man arose, is presumptive that all dead men shall be raised; that Jesus raised him from the dead during his redemptive mis­sion on earth, is conclusive that the resurrection is embraced in the work of redemption; and that Death heard and obeyed Him once, argues that he will hear and obey Him again. This conclusion is clear from the fact that when Jesus was completing Redemption’s plan the graves were opened, and as he completed it by his resurrection,  ”many bodies of the saints which slept, arose, and came out of the graves.” And as his resurrection was necessary to complete the work of redemption he came to perform, and did complete it; so by a parity of reason our resurrection is necessary to complete the work with reference to us; and will complete it.

 Glorious hope!– a remedy as universal as the disease. Our bodies may be dead for centuries. The Erica heather of Scotland, or the cactus of South America, may bloom _.over our graves; the chilly mists of the North may sheet our tombstones in eternal ice, or the encroachments of the Southern desert may bury them in sand ; marts of trade may be built over our resting-places, and the busy whirl of the world’s commerce may ring over our sleeping dust; the plough­boy may sing his merry song, and dance upon our long-lost graves; corals may incrust our bones in solid rock and rear up continents upon them;  or the wings of the tempest may fan our dust all around the world, yet the resurrection trump will find us, and we shall live again.

 The inspired penmen so understood it. Acting and living under the influence of this doctrine, they lose all terror of death. Hear how they term it:  ”Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” “Stephen fell asleep.” “Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” How ap­propriate! How expressive! for them who sleep shall awake. Death is not annihilation, but simply a change. It is sleep. To the energies of the laboring, sleep is rest and recupera­tion. Death is rest to the good man from all his toils, where he gathers new vigor for an eternity of action. Pa­geantries of golden dreams pass before the mind of the sleeper; the beauties of Heaven flash with more beaming splendor before the enraptured vision of the disembodied spirits. The overpowering joys of the better world will so soften the tread of cycles, and deaden the grating thunders of revolving ages, that the resurrection will take the sainted spirit with surprise.

 The promised and kingly triumphs of our Lord Jesus Christ are proofs of this doctrine, “He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death; 0 death, I will be thy plague: 0 grave, I will be thy destruction.” Jesus announced Himself as the Saviour and King of the world. If He is our Saviour, he must save us from sin and its results. Death is the result of sin, and if He delivers us not from its’ power, the whole is a failure–He is not our Saviour, the One promised us by the prophets, and the One the necessities of the case demanded.

 f he is our King, and His kingdom is to be supreme, universal, and absolute according to promise, He must rule over us, over his enemies, and over ours. Death is His enemy, and our enemy, and if He conquer not it, again the whole is a failure-He is not our King-our preaching is vain and your faith is vain.

 Death and the grave are our foes. Death’s ghastly and shadowy form rises to Heaven and, throws its awful shadow upon all our hopes. The grave darkly gapes at our feet every step of life’s journey. But Christ our federal represen­tative is conqueror. He was taken down from the cross a bloody corpse, and borne off to the grave. Hell exulted. Death waved his black banner in triumph. The light of im­mortality leaped up in one exhilarating flash, then sank to a waning spark; sighs ran along amid the bones of the patri­archs, and a wail of woe rang in the sepulchers of the dead. Had He never left Death’s dreary domain, the grave would have devoured all the race, and retained them. in its horrid jaws forever. The scepter of Death would have been uni­versal, and He King without a rival. No ray of light would ever have broken into the arcana of the lonely tomb to tell of coming day. No welcome voice would ever have rung along its damp and dismal galleries, and pealed in joyful echoes amid its mouldy arches to break the eternal slumber of its sleepers.

 The dying Christian might turn his eyes and look out of the window of his chamber upon the sunshine, the old familiar jar landscape skirting his home, and lift his withered arm and point his livid and chilled finger, and say, “Farewell forever.” He might gaze with hollow and dimming eye upon the faces of loved ones, fast receding from his vision, stand­ing around his bed, whose recollections are rapidly paling upon his memory, and say, “Farewell forever.” He might reach out his cold and trembling hand and grasp the hand of her who has traveled by his side from vigorous youth till both are old and gray,-not as the pledge of a coming union for one now breaking, but to feel its pressure for the last time, and to repeat in sepulchral whispers of saddest woe, “My wife, farewell forever.”

 But Jesus met Death in Death’s own territory, and per­mitted Himself to be captured, that He might lead captivity captive. He went with the Pale Monarch to the silent darkness of the tomb, but it was to undermine its strong­holds, and kindle the star of resurrection in its murky vaults -to cement the past to the future and pledge Omnipotence for a reunion. He plucked the sting from Death, took his keys, broke his crown, chained the monster to his chariot wheels, and mounted aloft to Heaven a Conqueror. My hearers, the keys of the grave are in higher hands.

 If there be no resurrection, Christianity is not adapted to all our wants. It fails to meet the aspirations and desires of our constitutional being, therefore has not all the elements necessary to make us happy. And if it is not grounded upon the wants of universal human nature, it is a failure. Can the best of you look upon your death as an eternal sleep? your grave as an eternal resting-place? can you bid without re­gret the bodies in which you have tabernacled so long an eternal farewell? Can you bid the bodies of your friends an eternal adieu, without the pangs of the keenest sorrow?

 Tell the young wife, widowed by this terrible war, as she rushes with disheveled tresses amid the promiscuous ditches of the battlefield, crammed with mutilated dead, that her hus­band will never rise, and her heart is saddened for life. Tell the sister, as she gazes upon the shattered body and obliterated features of a brother beloved, that that form and face will never be restored to happy recognition again. Tell the mother, who baptized her boy with blessings and sent him to the bloody “front,” where he fell and was buried, uncoffined, in some unknown grave, with no block, stone, or vine to mark his resting-place, that he never will come to her arms again.

 Tell the bereaved-fathers, mothers, widows, children-that there will be no resurrection, and a universal shriek will rend the air and crack the vault of heaven, till God hears and feels, and angels weep. Earth will put on weeds of mourn­ing, and like Rachel of old go down to the judgment weep­ing for her children.

 ”With what body do they come?” The same body which dies. I assume the bold Scriptural ground that every es­sential element of it will be raised though its particles be scattered over earth and sea. Hear the evidence of the mighty Paul, the chiefest of the Apostles: “It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dis­honor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” (I Cor. 15:42-44). The conclusion is clear: the same body which is sown in corruption, dishonor, and weakness will be raised in incorruption, glory, and power. The same body which is sown a natural body, will be raised a spiritual body. Not a similar body but the same body. Again: “This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” “This corruptible” -as strong as words can make it. The Lord “shall change our vile body.” (Phil. 3: 21). “All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shalt come forth.” On any other hypothesis there is no resurrection at all.

 Is Christ’s body to be the model? The ineffable^-brightness of His glory shone above the noonday sun and blinded Saul of Tarsus. Saint John saw Him in the midst of seven golden lamps, “clothed with a garment down to His foot,” girded with “a golden girdle,” His head environed with a radiating aureola, His eyes ablaze with Omniscience, His feet glowing like a furnace, His voice as the sound of many’ waters. The inimitable Prototype of celestial glory and regal magnificence, whose lightest shades defy the painter’s pencil, were the painter an angel. Like Him?  0 God! shall we ever attain to such perfection? me? you? Like Him  “Christ shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.”

 Finally, “How are the dead raised up?”  Inquiring humanity asks the question, doubting philosophy asks it, in­fidelity asks it, Christianity asks it. Paul answers it: “Ac­cording to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” God’s power is pledged for its per­formance. That Power which made systems, and holds them in awful and perpetual balance. That Power which con­founded chaos with order, and laid the foundations of the universe deep down upon nothing, and reared up its columns, towering into empty space, wreathed them with constellations of worlds, and propped against the throne of God. That Power which carpeted creation’s temple with emerald, roofed it with azure, and lit it up with ten thousand suns. That Power Which drives planets along their orbits and hurls the erratic comet to kindle its fires upon the black altars of night where suns never shine. That Power which shakes the earth, shivers its granite, ruptures its strata, overturns its mountains, and up heaves its valleys. That Power which binds lightnings to its chariot and rides upon the tempest. -That Power is pledged to raise me from the dead. Can it do it?

 Ah! angels could have philosophically descanted with more apparent reason upon the impossibility of creation before the fiat of God peopled immensity with worlds and intelligences, than you can philosophize against the resurrec­tion of the dead. Are there mysteries ? Are there difficul­ties? Paul refers them all to the power of God for an ample solution. You see as great wonders every day. Cast a seed in the ground; it enlarges: in a few days the germ sends up a stem and down a root:  the radicals imbibe the nutriment, and the stem enlarges and mounts upward as if by magic: soon its long conical blades droop in verdant curves to the earth, and the flower upon its top drops a dust upon the silken flower on its side, and a long ear of golden corn rewards the farmer’s toil-every grain of which pos­sesses the same reproductive power of the first. An acorn bursts, and a deep-rooted, gnarled, and knotted giant, who rears his trunk to ‘heaven, whose mossy limbs and crested foliage nod majestically among the clouds, is the result. Veg­etable life and existence are crowded with wonders.

 The phenomena of animal life, its causes, productions, nature, maintenance, reproduction, are full of mysteries and difficulties solving and unfolding every hour. Earth, air, and water are replete with mysteries, and instinct with difficul­ties. Every moment is a seeming eternity of impossibil­ities; every atom a universe of overwhelming difficulties. For man, who is himself a microcosm of wonders, standing amid a world of wonders, profound and confounding, to present the difficulties involved in the resurrection of the body as an insuperable obstacle to its accomplishment, is at once preposterous. Though your bones may lie bleaching in the bottom of^- the sea, or fossilized be deeply imbedded in rock; though your dust may be scattered over continents, transmuted into animals or plants, diffused in the air, diffused in the water, or mingled with clay, God’s power is able to raise you from the dead, and is pledged to do it.  That Power sooner or later will be exercised. The last day will come. The sun unwheeled will drag along the jarring heavens and refuse to shine. The stars will hide their
faces, and the moon will roll up in the heavens red as blood, and hang her crimson livery upon the wing of the night. Earth will tremble upon her axis, and huge mountains of woe will drift and lodge upon her heart. A mighty angel with a face like the sun, clothed with clouds, and crowned with a rainbow, and shod with wings of fire, will cleave the heavens in his lightning track, and descending with his right foot upon the troubled sea, and his left foot upon the quaking earth, lift his hand to heaven, and swear by the Judge of the quick and the dead that time shall be no longer. Old Time, the father of centuries and the tomb-builder of gen­erations, will drop his broken scythe and break his glass, careen and fall a giant in ruins.

 The trump of God will then sound. Its resonant thunders will roll through all the lengths and breadths of Death’s vast empire, and its old walls and arches crammed with buried millions will fall in crashing ruins. The dingy king will drop his scepter ringing in fragments upon the damp pavements of the grave, and fly howling from his tottering throne down, down to Erebus. The antiquated dead will start into life from their ashy urns and funeral pyres. Pyra­mids of granite and crypts of marble will he rent in twain to let the rising bodies come. Mummies will fling off the trappings of centuries, and pour from their vaulted cham­bers. Inquisitions will rock upon their foundations and revivified dead will stream from their dungeons. Abbeys, cathedrals, grottoes, and caverns will be vocal with life. Wanderers will shake off their winding sheets of sand, and rise from the face of the desert. Human bones will break away from their coral fastenings; mermaids draped in drip­ping weeds will mourn the evacuation of all their caves; old ocean will heave and swell with teeming millions.

 The battlefields of the world: Troy and Thermopylae, Talavera and Marengo, Austerlitz and Waterloo, Marathon and MissoIonghi; the battlefields of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, will reproduce their armies, and crowd the world with revivified legions. Indian maidens will leap from the dust of our streets, and our houses overturning will let their chiefs to Judgment. Abraham will shake off the dust of Machpelah, and arise with Sarah by his side. David will come with harp in hand. The reformer of Geneva and the apostle of Methodism will come side by side.

 Our village church yards and family burial grounds will be deserted. All will come: patriarchs, prophets, Jews and Gentiles, Christians and heathens, bond and free, rich and poor-fathers, mothers, children, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives-all from Adam down will come forth. And all the good all around the world all together will hail this redemp­tion’s grand consummation, with one proud anthem, whose choral thunders, rolling along all the paths of space, will shake the universe with its bursting chorus: “0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory”?

 EDITOR’S NOTE: Special thanks to my former association with Dr. John R. Rice and the paper he founded, The Sword of the Lord, for introducing me to the messages of Dr. William Elbert Munsey.  Munsey was a popular Methodist minister, born on July 13, 1833 and died October 3, 1877 (44 years).  He was converted to Christ at age 17 during a Methodist camp meeting.  He taught school and served a number of small churches before his well-prepared and powerful sermons were discovered by greater numbers.  His church services were packed and people crowded his meetings two hours before he would speak.   Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. asked Dr. Rice to publish a book of sermons by Dr. Munsey.  That book, Eternal Retribution!, was first published in 1951.  In his remarks, Dr. Jones reported that the sermons in this book were taken from a two-volume set (I believe the only books credited to Dr. Munsey) of remarkable sermons.  I searched the Internet for the books and found a used book store offering them in their original covers.  I purchased them;  amazingly at a very low cost.  It appears that everything Dr. Jones and Dr. Rice knew about Mr. Munsey was taken from these two volumes.  I am happy to own them and pleased to present the powerful message, The Resurrection of the Human Body.

 http://salvationlinks.com/?page_id=207 This should be a link to a page featuring a marker placed in honor of Mr. Munsey.

 Brother Roloff Preaches 

          The Axehead                                       

Click this link:  http://bit.ly/dfcpnb 

His Scripture Text: 2 Kings 6:1-7

I am pleased to publish the link for this sermon for my good friend, my former pastor, Brother Joe Ford of Macon, Georgia.  He loved Brother Roloff.  Brother Ford is one of God’s good and faithful stewards of the Word of God.      Brother Lester Roloff was one of the most colorful preachers I remember.  I heard him preach many times and loved every presentation he made of the Gospel.  Each time I heard him preach in person, I must have heard him on the radio ten times more;  perhaps more.  I loved his preaching, his humor, his colorful stories.  He was a delight.  I have heard more than a few preachers tell about receiving a phone call late at night from Brother Roloff.  He would call the preacher by name, “Brother…. this is Brother Roloff.  I will be at your church Sunday night to preach.  Get the word out.”  He didn’t ask are you open this Sunday night?  He just announced he was coming.  He would then mention it on his radio program and the church would be filled.  People were always thrilled he was going to come to their area.   From all parts of America pastors sent their troubled youth to Brother Roloff.  His radio program reached thousands of people who listened to him every day.  These people prayed for him and for those young people.   His home for unwed mothers touched the hearts of so many Christians.   We are pleased to present a link to one of his classic sermons preached, I believe at Bob Jones University.  I think you will agree he was like very few men who preached.  After you listen to him, I hope you will write  a note and let me know your reaction.   The sermon you will be listening to is posted at www.sermonaudio.com  There are a good many other sermons by Brother Roloff on this site.  Enjoy.

The message of the Holy Spirit of God to every lost sinner is, “Today!” Be saved today!

Again the same message is brought in II Corinthians 6:2: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” What time is the acceptable time for a sinner to be saved? “Behold, now is the accepted time,” answers the Scripture. When is the day of salvation? “Behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Unsaved friend, I beg you to consider some pressing reasons why you ought to be saved today. Not one single soul ought to lay this printed message down until you have said “yes” to God, until you have earnestly confessed yourself a sinner and depended on Him for mercy and claimed Him as your own Saviour! Today is the day to be saved!

A Great Opportunity for Churches!

Hosea the prophet wrote his Old Testament book in the 8th century B.C., just prior to the Assyrian captivity of the ten Northern Israelite tribes. At that time the entire nation had fallen into terrible immorality (Hosea 13:2). But the sin that would eventually destroy Israel was something far more serious. Note the words of Hosea’s indictment:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected
knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing
thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children (Hosea 4:6).

In other words, the ultimate transgression which would lead to Israel’s doom was not immorality or idolatry, but gross ignorance of God’s Word! Thus, the first two sins were but the bitter fruit of which the third was the poisonous root!Centuries later the apostle Paul may well have had Hosea’s tragic words in mind when he repeatedly warned the church concerning those conditions which would prevail in the last days:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart
from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils
(I Tim. 4:1 ) For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;
but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables (II Timothy 4:3, 4).

Are these the last days? It would seem so, as one considers the incredible and utterly inexcusable present-day ignorance in regard to the great truths of the Scriptures! In fact, the frightful words of Amos (an Old Testament contemporary of Hosea) could be said to describe our generation possibly more accurately than any other in church history.

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in
the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the
words of the LORD (Amos 8:11).

During a luncheon in Wheaton, Illinois, a friend of mine, Warren Wiersbe, made this observation: “The fastest growing denomination in American today is the denomination of the Ignorant Brethren!”

For some time now, I have experienced a growing concern in regard to this tragic ignorance. But what is the solution? How can the level of Bible knowledge be raised? I am fully persuaded the best way (perhaps indeed the only way) to accomplish this is through the local church!

In 1976 I prepared a scriptural correspondence program known as the Liberty Home Bible Institute. God has supernaturally blessed this endeavor, for at the present time over 100,000 students have been enrolled from every state in the union and 39 foreign countries. It is at this time the world’s largest program of its kind. Thus, building upon this experience we have now prepared a program especially designed for the entire local assembly, the Willmington Church Bible Institute.

Editor’s Note: If you have an interest in exploring the possibility of starting a Bible Institute in your local church I would like to send you a copy of an advertisement Dr. Willmington published in our paper, The Biblical Evangelist. The ad is a detailed report on what a Bible Institute might look like on your church campus. The important thing for you to consider now is just how simple and inexpensive it is to start an Institute in your local church.

It is simply amazing how God has blessed Dr. Harold Willmington and this fine work. With a small investment of the Lord’s money you can have a fully operational school that will serve not only your local church but those in your community who might be interested in learning the Bible.

Interested? Email me: Dr. Robert L. Sumner, Editor of The Biblical Evangelist
TheBiblicalEvangelist@gmail.com and ask for this free report. We will email it to you.

Why Pants on the Ground is So Hot, Hot, Hot…

General Larry Platt

When General Larry Platt pounced onto the American Idol stage for his debut he caught the judges by surprise and Americans roared from their sofas—why?

The answer may be simple.  America is neck deep in shell shock over so many disappointments with the falling economy, with the tragedy of Haiti, with politicians making promises they can’t keep.  People losing their jobs, kids flunking in school.  So many illnesses dragging folks down.  We needed a break.

People tune in to American Idol for a few minutes of escape.  Then here comes General Larry Platt.  Wow!  He shook up the place.  The song, not much of a song, was swept into our idled brains with the contagious enthusiasm of The General—the new black rapper from Atlanta tryouts.  We liked him immediately and his infectious song registered with positive vibes.

Many have actually observed young people with those ridiculous “pants on the ground” styles and the cap turned sideways look.  Adults mostly shake their heads in wonder.  Surely no woman in her right mind looks at one of those guys and says, “He is one more handsome dude!  I must see if I can wrangle a date.”  Who would want to walk along side of such?

So, The General expresses our sentiments.   Thank you General.  You are getting your 15 minutes of fame, but more than that, you are providing Americans with their 15 minutes of relief.  Thank you again.  I watched as Brett Favre and his team picked up the song after their astounding victory over The Dallas Cowboys; the ladies on the View had The General come on and sing.  His song is hot! Pants on the ground–could well be pants on fire! 

You know there is a story recorded in the Bible about a man who had a problem with his pants.  He mostly tore his clothes off and was known as a crazy man who lived in the tombs in the land of the Gadarenes—a place near the Sea of Galilee.

When Jesus saw this poor man in his awful condition He didn’t compose a song, or suggest he go in for professional counseling—He healed him on the spot.  The man was possessed with so many devils that when the demons left the man and entered into the hogs nearby—almost 2000 of them—even the hogs went crazy and rushed over the edge and into the water where they drowned.

The tragic case of the devil-possessed man was changed in an instant.  He wanted to follow along with Jesus and share his great blessing with the great crowds that would come to the meetings.  But Jesus told him to “Return to your own house, and show people who know you what great and wonderful things God has done unto you” (Luke 8).  Most of us would do well to impress the folks at home with our new found faith before we launch out into the deep waters of ministry.

Let’s enjoy The General and his amusing song for now, but let us not forget many people are hurting.  We should do what we can to help them.  The best thing you can do for any one who is hurting is point them towards the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He can help.  He can save.  He loves the sinner, but hates his sin.  Prayerfully read Romans Chapter 10.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  FOR OUR NEIGHBORS TO THE SOUTH, HAITI, THE POOR PEOPLE WHO ARE HURTING FROM THE AWFUL TRAGEDY THAT DESTROYED THEIR HOMES, INUJURED SO MANY AND TOOK THE LIVES OF THOUSANDS, THERE IS A WAY YOU CAN HELP.  SEND A DONATION TO: SAMARITAN’S PURSE: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

VISIT THEIR SITE AND REVIEW THE WONDERFUL WORK THIS ORGANIZATION IS DOING IN HAITI AND OTHER TROUBLED SPOTS AROUND THE GLOBE.  The son of Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, directs this fine work.  Within hours of the earthquake in Haiti the Samaritan’s Purse Team was packing up supplies, water purification plant and doctors to go there and provide relief.  Pray for Franklin and that mighty team of workers.  God bless them one and all.  Your gifts make their work possible.  May God bless and protect all of the men and women who went there to help.

KEEP ON PRAYING
Read 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Devotinal By Michael Guido

Gypsy Smith (Born Rodney “Gipsy” Smith), the great evangelist, was converted when he was a boy. He loved his grandfather, and he tried to win him to the Lord.

Not being allowed to talk to his grandfather, he prayed for his conversion.

One day the grandfather asked, “Laddie, why are the knees of your trousers so badly worn?”

“Because I’ve been praying for your conversion,” he explained.

Weeping, he knelt with the boy, and received the Lord.

Have you ever worn out your trousers by praying for the conversion of your family and friends?

Try it, won’t you?

Prayer: O God, all through today make me brave enough to follow Thee, strong enough to witness for Thee, and convincing enough to win souls to Thee. Constrain me to pray persistently for the conversion of my family and friends: through Christ. Amen.

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Who was Gipsy Smith? 

Gypsy (Gipsy) Smith

His Early life

Parent's Grave

The grave of Polly and Cornelius Smith in St Nicholas churchyard in Norton now part of Letchworth Garden City.

Smith was born in a gypsy tent six miles northeast of London, in Epping Forest. The site is marked with a large, commemorative stone,in the woods near Waterworks Corner, Woodford Green. Smith received no education. The family made a living selling baskets, tinware, and clothespegs. His father, Cornelius, and his mother, Mary (Polly) Welch, provided a home that was happy in the gypsy wagon. Smith was a child when his mother died from smallpox near Baldock in Hertfordshire. She is buried in the nearby churchyard of St Nicholas church in Norton, now part of Letchworth Garden City. The Smith children numbered four girls and two boys (Rodney was the fourth child).
Cornelius was in and out of jail for various offences. There, he heard the gospel from a prison chaplain; later, he and his brothers were converted at a mission meeting. From 1873 on, “The Converted Gypsies” were involved in numerous evangelistic efforts.
Smith’s conversion as a sixteen-year-old came as a result of a combination of things. The witness of his father, hearing Ira Sankey sing and the visit to the home of John Bunyan in Bedford all contributed. He taught himself to read and write and began to practice preaching. He would sing hymns to the people he met and was known as “the singing gypsy boy.

At a convention at the Christian Mission (later to become the Salvation Army) headquarters in London, William Booth noticed the Gypsies and realized the potential in young Smith. On 25 June 1877, he accepted the invitation of Booth to be an evangelist with and for the Mission. For six years (1877–1882), he served on street corners and mission halls.

Family

He was married on 17 December 1879 to Annie E. Pennock, one of his converts. It was from this marriage that Rodney and Annie had three children, two boys and one girl. Albany Rodney, the eldest, became a Christian later in life and eventually followed in his father’s footsteps and became an evangelist in the United States. He was known as Gipsy Smith, Jr. and served as an evangelist from 1911 to August 24, 1951 when he died. Albany was married and had three children of his own. His eldest was John Rodney or (Jack) and was known as a well-respected lawyer. G. Wilbur Smith was a Presbyterian pastor and pastored three different churches, 1 in Missouri, 1 in Stuttgart, Arkansas and his last pastorate was at Batesville, Mississippi. Albany’s youngest was Betty and was the apple of his eye, she grew up into a fine wife. Rodney’s youngest son, Alfred Hanley became a Christian while he was yet young and became a Wesleyan pastor in England and served at 11 different pastorates during his 43 years in the ministry. Hanley died on February 11, 1949 at the age of 67. Rhoda Zillah served with her father in his great South African campaign known as the “Mission of Peace”. She eventually married a banker named James Lean and had two children, Rodney James Lean and Zillah Lean. Zillah Elizabeth Lean, Gipsy’s granddaughter, worked with the late English author David Lazell, of East Leake, in his first biographical account of Gipsy Smith entitled, “Gipsy Smith, From the Forest I Came”. Also, Reverend Charles Smith, of Van Buren, Arkansas wrote a brief biographical account of the Gipsy Smith family for the British Evangelical Magazine, The Flame (July-September 2006: Volume 72 No. 3).

Salvation Army

Gipsy (Gypsy) Smith & Salvation Army

‘Gipsy’ Smith as a Captain in the Salvation Army

Rodney and Annie served in several assignments and saw membership rise to hundreds, then a thousand. By June 1882, great crowds were coming and the work was growing. A gold watch was given to him and about £20.00 was presented to his wife by the warm-hearted members of a local congregation. Acceptance of these gifts was a breach of the rules and regulations of the Salvation Army, and for this, he was dismissed from the Army. This happened so suddenly that other evangelists had to step in to take up his preaching engagements, including a contemporary preacher Charles Crowie Smith, who took over 2 engagements in Hanley. His eight assignments with the Salvation Army had produced 23,000 decisions and his crowds were anywhere up to 1,500.

Evangelist travels

He traveled extensively around the world on evagelistic crusades, drawing crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands throughout his life. Busy as he was, he never grew tired of visiting gypsy encampments whenever he could on both sides of the Atlantic. Gipsy never wrote a sermon out for preaching purposes. Smith wrote several books and could sing as well as he preached. Sometimes he would interrupt his sermon and burst into song. Several of these hymns he would sing were recorded by Columbia Records. Although he was Methodist, ministers of all denominations loved him. It is said that he never had a meeting without conversions.

During World War I he ministered under the auspices of the Y.M.C.A.to the British troops in France, often visiting the front lines. As a result of this, King George VI made him a member of the Order of the British Empire.

Later life

Gipsy Smith’s wife, Annie, died in 1937 at the age of 79 while he was in America. Front page headlines in 1938 carried the news of the 78-year-old widower marrying Mary Alice Shaw on her 27th birthday. This, of course, brought some criticism. But it was a good marriage, for she helped him in his meetings, sang, did secretarial work, and later nursed him when his health failed.

Stricken by a heart attack, he died on the Queen Mary on a cruise in America, age 87. It was estimated that this was his 45th crossing of the Atlantic. His funeral was held 8 August 1947 in New York City. A memorial with a plaque was unveiled on 2 July 1949 at Mill Plain, Epping Forest, England, his birthplace. So ends the life of one who once said, “I didn’t go through your colleges and seminaries. They wouldn’t have me…but I have been to the feet of Jesus where the only true scholarship is learned.”

Much of this report was taken from work done by Charles Smith (No relation to Gipsy Smith) and published in the online “The Free Encyclopedia” Wikipedia.  Charles wrote to suggest I credit this report and I am most happy to do so.  Charles is working, I believe, on a larger work on Rodney “Gipsy” Smith’s life & ministry. He hopes to publish soon.  Click this link for Wikipedia report:  http://bit.ly/ccU244 

You will find more detail about “Gipsy” Smith in the story about his father’s conversion to Christ.  A remarkable story and one you should share with others.  http://bit.ly/9Utx8u

Curt Anderson

 By the Editor 

When I was the pastor of a church in Alabama a family from Michigan moved to our little community and united with our church.  The mother and dad were fine people and they had two wonderful boys, Curt and Wray.  The mother, Ellen Anderson (Her husband (Danny), too) was an active church member.   Ellen was a stay at home mom and wife who had a good bit of time to help out at our church and Christian school. 

Any pastor would be delighted to have a person so caring and concerned about the local church.  During one of her visits she told me about a relative who was famous.  “Famous?,” I asked.  She was delighted to share the story.  Her famous relative was Rev. George Bennard, the hymn writer (1873-1958).  He wrote a number of songs, but his most famous was The Old Rugged Cross.  I was impressed, but over the many years that story faded in my memory.  This past week her son, Curt Anderson, was a guest in our home along with his wife, Bonita and their three children, Ty, Jon and Drew.  The Andersons home school their kids.  So, mostly, the whole family travels with Curt.    Curt is an evangelist who uses magic  as a tool to win souls and encourage Christians to live for God.  His wife is his stage assistant.   While seated around our table we were talking about his mom and dad and our church.  I remembered to him that his mother had shared a story about a famous relative who had written a song.   

Curt immediately said, “George Bennard and The Old Rugged Cross.”  We talked about Mr. Bennard for a bit and Curt told me he now owned the international rights to that wonderful song of our Christian faith.  Later, I looked up the song and Mr. Bennard.  I found that Billy Sunday learned of the song after if was first published.  He used it on his radio program and I suppose in some of his evangelistic meetings.  The song became an instant hit with the faithful.  It sold some 15,000,000 copies.  Wow!   

George Bennard knew he wanted to be a preacher from a young age.  Economics hindered him at the beginning after his father died.  But he would later work with The Salvation Army where he served, I believe, as an evangelist.  Later after leaving that good ministry, he did the work of an evangelist on his own.  I was proud of the Anderson family and the dedication of Ellen to Christian work.  Her relative, George Bennard, would have been proud of her dedication.  He would also be very proud of her son, Curt, who is earning a good reputation with his Curt Anderson Magic.   I am happy to report this story here on our blog and hope you will pray for Curt Anderson.  If your church or ministry would like to consider his ministry of magic I hope you will contact him.  His website is:  http://www.magicurt.com/  Click on that link and read his story and see samples of his work.  He has a lovely Christian family and is worthy of your consideration.   Can you see a likeness in Curt to the Rev. George Bennard?   

———————————————————————————————– 

George Bennard

The Rev. George Bennard, who grew up poor in Iowa, wrote what many consider to be the most beloved hymn of all time, “The Old Rugged Cross.” “I seemed to have a vision . . . I saw the Christ and the cross inseparable,” he wrote in his memoirs. He wrote the song over a month as he traveled to revival meetings. The melody came easily, but he labored over the words in the four verses and refrain. The hymn, published in 1913, was immediately successful. Bennard (pronounced Benn-ARD), who was born in Youngstown, Ohio, was the son of George and Margaret Russell Bennard, of Scottish descent. The couple, who had five other children, moved their family to Albia, where the senior Bennard ran a tavern, and later to Lucas. When the Albia tavern burned, the father of the house turned to mining coal, and an accident led to his death at 49, forcing young George, at 16, to support his mother and sisters as a miner. BECOMES MINISTER: In 1895, across the state in Canton, Bennard attended Salvation Army meetings, and at 24 became a minister when he enlisted in the Salvation Army at Rock Island, Ill. By 1898, he was conducting revival meetings throughout the Midwest, later transferring to New York, where he resigned in 1910 to go out on his own as an evangelist. It was at that time that he began composing hymns. Bennard settled at Albion, Mich., and opened his own hymn publishing company. It was at Albion that he likely began — and later finished — “The Old Rugged Cross.” The hymn was first sung formally at a revival meeting at Pokagon, Mich. Noted evangelist Billy Sunday, an Iowa native, popularized the hymn with his nationally broadcast radio show. By 1939, more than 15 million copies of the hymn had been sold and numerous recordings made. OTHER HYMNS: Bennard eventually composed about 350 hymns, such as “Speak, My Lord,” “Oh, Make Me Clean” and “Have Thy Way, Lord” but none was as successful as “Rugged Cross.” Bennard, who played a guitar but not piano, was known as a persuasive speaker and sharp dresser, yet humble and sincere. Bennard’s first wife, Willaminta, died, and in July 1944 he married Hannah Dahlstrom, who was his accompanist. The couple eventually retired to Ashton, Mich. Bennard died of asthma in Reed City, Mich., on Oct. 10, 1958, and services there were attended by 400 people, including 25 area ministers. As could be expected, the rites included an organ rendition of “The Old Rugged Cross.” Today, Reed City is home to the Old Rugged Cross Historical Museum, which is visited by thousands of people every year.   

There is a nice website featuring details of Mr. George Bennard’s minitry: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/FAMOUSIOWANS/41011002