[My Savior has freed me from sin]

Composer: E. O. Excell

Edwin Othello Excel USA 1851-1921. Born at Uniontown, OH, he started working as a bricklayer and plasterer. He loved music and went to Chicago to study it under George Root. He married Eliza Jane “Jennie” Bell in 1871. They had a son, William, in 1874. A member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he became a prominent publisher, composer, song leader, and singer of music for church, Sunday school, and evangelistic meetings. He founded singing schools at various locations in the country and worked with evangelist, Sam Jones, as his song leader for two decades. He established a music publishing house in Chicago and authored or composed over 2,000 gospel songs. While assisting Gypsy Smith in an evangelistic campaign in Louisville,… Go to person page >

Composer: Alfred B. Smith

Used pseudonym B. C. Laurelton ---------- In 1930, he began playing on radio broadcasts in Jersey City, New Jersey, on "The Old Fashioned Gospel Hour." After meeting Wendell P. Loveless, Alfred enrolled at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and became a member of the WMBI staff. During service as Minister of Music at The Church of the Open Door in Philadelphia, he taught at The Philadelphia School of the Bible in the fall of 1938. During that year, he wrote "For God So Loved the World" after visiting the ninety-four year-old hymn writer George C. Stebbins. Smith met Billy Graham when they were both students at Wheaton College. During their long collaboration, they founded Singspiration in 1941. After graduating from Whea… Go to person page >