Hallelujah! What a Savior by Phil­ip P. Bliss

Born: Ju­ly 9, 1838, Clear­field Coun­ty, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Died: De­cem­ber 29, 1876, Ash­ta­bu­la, Ohio. Bliss and his wife died in a tra­gic train wreck caused by a bridge col­lapse. He sur­vived the in­i­tial im­pact, but went back in­to the flames in an un­suc­ces­sful at­tempt to res­cue his wife.

Buried: The re­mains re­trieved from the Ash­ta­bu­la dis­as­ter were placed in a com­mon grave marked by a cen­o­taph in the Ash­ta­bu­la Cem­e­te­ry. A cen­o­taph in mem­o­ry of the Bliss­es was al­so erect­ed in the cem­e­tery at Rome, Penn­syl­vania, Ju­ly 17, 1877.

The night be­fore that ter­ri­ble rail­road ac­ci­dent at Ash­ta­bu­la…he said to his au­di­ence, “I may not pass this way again”; then he sang a so­lo, “I’m Go­ing Home To­mor­row.” This in­deed proved pro­phe­tic of his own home go­ing.

Written…short­ly before his death, this was the last hymn I heard Mr. Bliss sing. It was at a meet­ing in Far­well Hall in Chi­ca­go [Il­li­nois], con­duct­ed by Hen­ry Moore­house. 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.

When Mr. Moo­dy and I were in Par­is, hold­ing meet­ings in the old church which
Na­pol­e­on had grant­ed to the Evan­gel­ic­als, I fre­quent­ly sang this hymn as a so­lo, ask­ing the con­gre­ga­tion to join in the sin­gle phrase, “Hal­le­lu­jah, what a Sav­iour,” which they did with splen­did ef­fect. It is said that the word “Hal­le­lu­jah” is the same in all lan­guag­es. It seems as though God had pre­pared it for the great ju­bi­lee of hea­ven, when all his child­ren shall have been ga­thered home to sing “Hal­le­lu­jah to the Lamb!”

Ira David Sankey

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

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!


Guilty, vile, and helpless we;
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
“Full atonement!” can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior!


Lifted up was He to die;
“It is finished!” was His cry;
Now in Heav’n exalted high.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!


When He comes, our glorious
King,All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew His song we’ll sing:
Hallelujah! What a Savior!