SHOWERS OF BLESSING

Hymn Story: The Bible in the Haversack 

Major Daniel Whittle, evangelist and author of many hymns including Showers of Blessing, I Know Whom I Have Believed and Moment by Moment, wrote this of his conversion shortly after being wounded in the Civil War:

We had many engagements, and I saw many sad sights, and in one of the battles I was knocked out, and that night my arm was amputated above the elbow. As I grew better, having a desire for something to read, I felt in my haversack, which I had been allowed to keep, and found the little Testament my mother had placed there.

I read right through the book – Matthew, Mark, Luke, to Revelation. Every part was interesting to me; and I found to my surprise that I could understand it in a way that I never had before. When I had finished Revelation, I began at Matthew, and read it through again. And so for days I continued reading, and with continued interest; and still with no thought of becoming a Christian, I saw clearly from what I read the way of salvation through Christ.

Major Whittle went on to tell about a dying soldier next to him in the hospital who begged Whittle to pray for him. 

Whittle wrote:

I dropped on my knees and held the boy’s hand in mine. In a few brok­en words I con­fessed my sins and asked Christ to for­give me. I be­lieved right there that He did for­give me. I then prayed ear­nest­ly for the boy.

He be­came qui­et and pressed my hand as I prayed and plead­ed God’s prom­ises. When I arose from my knees, he was dead. A look of peace had come over his troubled face, and I can­not but be­lieve that God who used him to bring me to the Sav­ior, used me to lead him to trust Christ’s pre­cious blood and find par­don. I hope to meet him in hea­ven.

And the chain of events started with a mother's love and a New Testament in a soldier's haversack.

Whittle soon became an evangelist and hymn writer and met James McGranahan at the scene of the tragic train wreck that killed their mutual friend Philip Bliss, a fellow hymn writer and composer. 

Whittle and McGranahan became close friends and a dynamic songwriter and composer duo whose works were popularized during Dwight L.Moody's and Ira Sankey's evangelistic campaigns.