Singing Saves Lives

Here is a crazy story of how powerful the spoken word or spoken song can really be. Written in 1898, this is a story of a soldier who found out years later that he was spared from being killed in the Civil War when his enemy heard him singing a song.

A group of people were on a steamer going down the Potomac in 1881 and a well known evangelist of song was singing “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” with great passion. The crowd was silenced by his singing and then a few moments later a man approached the singer and asked him if he was in the war of late, referring to the Civil War.

“Yes, sir,’ the man of song answered, courteously; ‘I fought under General Grant.’

‘Well,’ the first speaker continued, with something like a sigh, ‘I did my fighting on the other side, and think, indeed I am quite sure, I was very near you one bright night eighteen years ago this very month. It was about such a night as this. If I not mistaken, you were on guard duty. We of the South had sharp business on hand; you were one of the enemy. I crept near your post of duty, my murderous weapon in hand. The shadow hid me. As you paced back and forth, you were humming the tune you have just sung. I raised my gun, aimed at your heart; and I had been selected by our commander because I was a sure shot. Then out upon the night rang-
‘Cover my defenseless head With the shadow of thy wing.’

‘Your prayer was answered. I could not fire after that, and there was no attack made on your camp that night. I felt sure when I heard you sing this evening that you were the man whose life I was spared from taking.’”

The singer was astonished and shared with great emotion, “I remember the night very well, and distinctly the feeling of depression and loneliness with which I went forth to my duty. I knew my post was one of great danger, and I was more dejected than I remember to have been at any other time during the service. I paced my lonely beat, thinking of home and friends and all that life holds dear. Then the thought of God’s care for all that He has created came to me with particular force…and I sang the prayer of my heart, and ceased to be alone… ‘Jesus, Lover of my Soul’ has been my favorite hymn; now it will be inexpressibly dear.”

Cool.

This is an excerpt taken from Carrie Judd Montgomery’s Triumphs of Faith 18:11 (Nov 1898) in an anonymous article entitled “Prayer Answered”