James McGranahan 1840-1907 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Born: Ju­ly 4, 1840, West Fel­low­field, Penn­syl­van­ia. Died: Ju­ly 9, 1907, Kins­man, Ohio. Buried: Kins­man, Ohio. Pseudonym: G. M. J. James McGranahan (1840-1907) The fol­lowing ar­ti­cle by Gladys Doonan, “To Reap for the Mas­ter,” ap­peared in Challenge, De­cem­ber 28, 1986. Used by per­miss­ion of Reg­u­lar Bap­tist Press, Schaumb­urg, Il­li­nois. Even the fes­tiv­i­ties of the Christ­mas sea­son that De­cem­ber of 1876 could­n’t drive them from his mind—those notes his friend Phil­ip had writ­ten to him just a few days be­fore the hol­i­day. He read them over and over again and al­most de­cid­ed to yield to the urg­ing of their mes­sage—al­most, but not quite. His dreams of per­son­al am­bi­tion were still too pre­cious. How could he give them up? James McGranahan was a tal­ent­ed and cul­tured Amer­i­can mu­si­cian who lived from 1840 to 1907. He was gift­ed with a rare ten­or voice and stu­died for years with em­i­nent teach­ers who urged him to train for a ca­reer in op­era. Of course, this ad­vice opened up to his imag­in­a­tion daz­zling pros­pects of fame and for­tune. And he was as­sured time and time again it was all with­in his grasp. James McGranahan was a Christ­ian, and he had a Christ­ian friend Phil­ip P. Bliss who was con­cerned about him. His friend was al­so a ca­pa­ble mu­si­cian who had gone through ma­ny of the same ex­per­i­ences in his young­er days as a sing­er. How­ev­er, he had been sen­si­tive to the claims of the Lord on his life and had yield­ed his tal­ents to God for full-time Christ­ian ser­vice. Though on­ly two years old­er than Mc­Gran­a­han, Phil­ip Bliss, at 38, had a good do­zen years of Christ­ian work be­hind him. He was then serv­ing as a gos­pel so­lo­ist with the great evan­gel­ist Ma­jor D. W. Whit­tle. How he thrilled to the re­sponse of the great crowds who ga­thered for their cam­paigns and to the work­ing of the Ho­ly Spir­it through his mu­sic! He longed for his friend James to know that thrill as well! Philip Bliss and his wife were pre­par­ing for a trip home to Penn­syl­van­ia for Christ­mas. There was much to be done, but in the midst of all the bus­tle and hur­ry Bliss felt strange­ly com­pelled to take time out to write Mc­Gran­a­han a let­ter. He kept think­ing of his 36-year-old friend, who was still stu­dy­ing mu­sic, still pre­par­ing for—what? Would it be op­era or would it be the Lord’s work? Philip Bliss prayed as he wrote that he would know the right words to put down. He knew the Lord was deal­ing with James and was ea­ger for his friend to make the right de­ci­sion. Fin­al­ly the let­ter was done. Bliss, need­ing en­cour­age­ment and ap­prov­al for what he had said, read it to Ma­jor Whit­tle. In the let­ter he com­pared Mc­Gran­a­han’s long course of mu­sic­al train­ing to a man whet­ting his scythe for the har­vest. The cli­max came as he strong­ly urged, “Stop whet­ting the scythe and strike in­to the grain to reap for the Mas­ter!” The let­ter was sent on its way and quick­ly reached its des­tin­a­tion. Those words touched James Mc­Gran­a­han as no others had be­fore. He could think of no­thing else. “Strike into the grain to reap for the Mas­ter…to reap for the Mas­ter…to reap for the Mas­ter!” Day and night those words were be­fore him. One week later, De­cem­ber 19, 1876, the man who had penned the words was dead. The train re­turn­ing the Bliss­es from Penn­syl­van­ia to Chi­ca­go where Phil­ip was sched­uled to sing at Moody Tab­er­na­cle broke through a rail­road bridge at Ash­ta­bu­la, Ohio. It plunged into a 60-foot chasm and caught fire. Among the 100 who per­ished in the di­sas­ter were the 38-year-old gos­pel sing­er and his wife. When James Mc­Gran­a­han re­ceived news of the tra­ge­dy he rushed im­me­di­ate­ly to the scene of the ac­ci­dent. And it was there, for the first time, that he met Major Whit­tle. The evan­gel­ist lat­er re­cord­ed his thoughts on the oc­ca­sion: “Here be­fore me stands the man that Mr. Bliss has cho­sen to be his suc­ces­sor.” The two men made the re­turn trip to Chi­ca­go to­ge­ther, and as they rode they talked. Be­fore they reached the ci­ty James Mc­Gran­a­han de­cid­ed to yield his life, his tal­ents, his all to the ser­vice of his Sav­ior. He would “strike into the grain to reap for the Mas­ter.” The op­er­a­tic world lost a star that day, but the Christ­ian world gained one of its sweet­est gos­pel sing­ers. James Mc­Gran­a­han was great­ly used in evan­gel­is­tic cam­paigns through­out Amer­i­ca, in Great Bri­tain and in Ire­land. Sources Hall, pp. 191-5 Hustad, p. 285 Hymns Go Ye into All the World O the Crown Shall You? Shall I? Music Are You Coming Home Tonight? Banner of the Cross, The Behold, What Love! Beloved, Now Are We By Grace Are Ye Saved Church of God Is One, The Christ Liveth in Me Christ Returneth Come Come Believing! Crowning Day, The El Nathan Every Day Will I Bless Thee Frances Go Ye into All the World Hallelujah for the Cross! He Is Not Here, But Is Risen! He Will Hide Me I Know Not the Hour I Left It All with Jesus I Will Pass Over You I’ll Stand by until the Morn­ing Jesus Is Coming Kinsman McGranahan My Redeemer Nei­ther Do I Condemn Thee Neumeister Oh, Revive Us by Thy Word Preach the Gospel Sometime We’ll Understand There Shall Be Showers of Blessing Thou Remainest Thy God Reigneth! Verily, I Say unto You -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/15/2005 21:42:01