He sure lived up to his name! That might be said without too much exaggeration about Edwin Othello Excell, a hymnwriter, publisher, and songleader, particularly after he began his musical career in earnest in the late 1870s-early 1880s and moved to Chicago in 1883. It was just a year hence that he reflected on the blessings he had received in a five-verse poem “Since I Have Been Redeemed”, one of the first he wrote in his Chicago–based career. Could Edwin have been excused if he did exert himself a bit more than most, in order to reflect his surname? Thousands of written songs, dozens of hymnbooks, and countless people that he touched personally through his song-leading are in Edwin’s credit column, a resume that not many others of his generation could match. But, most likely without hesitation, Edwin would probably say that the source of his energy was another’s name, and not his own.
Edwin Excell did not start out to be a musical dynamo, though that’s what he would achieve by age 69 when he died. His father’s role as a minister (German Reformed) and author must have played an embryonic role in Edwin’s early development, and after he turned 20 and was married, he left the brick-laying and plastering vocation in order to pursue the music that he loved. He’d already been engaged in this as a singing instructor and songleader in church services and at revivals, but more formal education and a relocation to Chicago to begin his life as a music publisher firmed-up Excell’s career path by 1883. No specific circumstance is known for what moved Edwin to express his thoughts in 1884. Yet, as a 33-year-old launching out on this path in 1884, one can imagine that Edwin must have been enthusiastic about what he was doing. There’s no gloom or hesitation within his musical voice in the verses he penned – it’s about why he ‘love(d) to sing’ (v.1). Everything evidently flowed from Edwin’s sense of ebullience ‘since (he) had been redeemed’. Besides the music he loved to sing, Edwin had purpose – ‘to do His will’ (v.2) – and to do it without reservation (v.3), bringing a ‘joy’ that Edwin said he could not adequately express (v.5), and an assurance that a home beyond also awaited (v.4). Five verses could not contain all that Edwin wanted to say -- that would take nearly another 40 years and authorship of or contribution to nearly 90 songbooks. It is estimated that Excell’s songbook production had reached nearly the 10 million mark by 1914, the largest among publishers at that time. Many of these publications undoubtedly contained Excell’s two or three thousand songs that he wrote as well, another expression of Excell’s passion for the life he must have felt was summed up in ‘Since I …Redeemed’. Is other evidence necessary to expose what was coming out of Edwin Excell’s spirit in 1884, and why he wrote?
Edwin Excell’s life challenges the rest of us with a question. How much am I doing to say ‘thank you’ for my Creator’s inspiration? I cannot buy my way into His presence, that is true. But, there must have been times when Edwin was in front of a crowd, trying to stir their passion in song for God, when he knew that if he didn’t exude a certain gusto, the crowd would not either. The zip of one person can provide the initial momentum, pushing others to exercise their own gifts to lift His name and reputation. A certain phrase, perhaps a unique story, or a combination of factors speak to the variety of ways that He works in his created ones. He certainly did, in a big way, in one named Excell. See if you can find how He’s working for you, and become a kind of ‘excell’ for him.
See this site for all 5 verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/i/n/c/sinceihb.htm
See here for more extensive biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Excell
See here for biographic information on the author: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/e/x/c/e/excell_eo.htm
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