Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1877 — The Late P. P. Bliss. [ARTICLE]

The Late P. P. Bliss.

Ouk readers have before this been painfully startled by the news, in their horrible detail, of the railroad accident which happened on Friday evening, Dec. 29. The Pacific Express of .the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, westward bound, and consisting of eleven cars and two engines, left Ashtabula early in the evening during a terrible snow storm, and, when about midway of the bridge west of the town, it is supposed that one of the cars jumped the track, and. the iron bridge giving way, the entire train was precipitated into the chasm seventyfive feet below. It is impossible to exaggerate the tragic character of the scene that ensued. In less than five minutes the wrecked pile was enveloped in flames. Bodies were crushed and wedged amid timbers, and wasted before the eyes of their friends, whose efforts to extricate them were in many cases utterly unavailing. Pitiful were the cries of distress that rang into the air on the fierce December night, and the misery compressed into those few moments can never be recorded. Among those who met their death in this way were P. P. Bliss and wife, of this city. It is said he might have saved himself; but noble and heroic to the last, he died in the flames while trying to rescue his wife. We have no words with which to express our sense of the loss which the Church of Christ has sustained in this-Affliction. Mr. Bliss, viewed in any light, was an uncommon man. Of superb physical mold and bearing, most hearty and genial address and manners, distinguished for a blending of frankness and dignity, he at once enlisted the kind regard"of all who met him. A closer acquaintance deepened this regard into admiration and affection. Rich and deep in Christian experience, his heart seemed overflowing with the love of Christ, and never so happy as when singingthepraises of his glorified Redeemer* There have been many greater men than Mr. Bliss, but the Church has had few servants, of late years, so peculiarly gifted in reaching the heart through sacred words and melodies. The present collection of “ Gospel Songs” contains a great many of Mr. Bliss’composition. His facility of composition was remarkable. In the morning Mr. Bliss would hear a sermon, and before the evening service he would have the leading thought in song and set to music. In this direction he was the most gifted man we ever knew. His songs have been translated into nearly every European language, besides Chinese anti some of the tongues of India. All arouhd the globe his hymns are sung. “ Let me write a nation’s songs, and I care not who makes her laws.” Judged by this sentiment, who shall measure the influence of the life so suddenly taken from our midst ? The songs of Mr. Bliss will ring around the world, and be echoed from human hearts long after poetry and music far more ambitious shall have fallen to silence. The memory of this man will be specially enshrined in the, minds of the children—who could desire a more beautiful immortality ? The singer has ceased from earth—the song goes on.— lnterior (Chicago).