He Lives -- Alfred H. Ackley

Life changes everything – a rather obvious fact, isn’t it? But, that’s what Alfred Henry Ackley was thinking around Easter in 1932, a thought that so energized him that he wrote a hymn to say how important this reality is. “He Lives” was his assertion of hope, despite the dire circumstances of the Great Depression that was ongoing in this his 45^th year. He wasn’t despondent, but did feel a desperate need to answer a question posed to him, a question that lit a fire and was further stoked by nonchalance and even doubt that he heard regarding Christ’s resurrection (shown in this 15^th Century masterpiece). His method provides a recipe for how to manage a confrontation with suspicion. Life is proof, he says.

Alfred Ackley had been a minister and music-lover for many years when he wrote “He Lives” in the early 1930s. His father had musically tutored him in New York before sending young Alfred to London’s Royal Academy of Music, but his training didn’t end with music and learning to play the cello. He also obtained theological training at Maryland’s Westminster Seminary, and subsequently ministered in the eastern United States before moving to California. There, a Jewish student bluntly challenged Ackley – ‘why worship a dead Jew?’  Ackley’s prompt response presaged the title of the hymn he later wrote. He also was aroused by some casual skepticism he later heard over the radio, eliciting such passion that his wife reportedly pushed him to record his feelings in this hymn. Verses 1 and 2 of “He Lives” give us hints of his debate with his young Jewish friend, as well as with the culture at large. ‘…(no matter) what men say’ and the weariness and ‘stormy blasts’ he mentions are conceivably reflections of his conversations about faith and a recognition of the era’s economic upheaval. It’s apparent his hymn wasn’t just a song, but a sincere, fervent answer in his world at the time.    

Perhaps he had had other similar encounters and subsequent discussions with his wife or others, for Alfred is credited with some 1,500 songs, both secular and religious, over his lifetime. Composers often tell us how their musical inventions have sprung from real events, even challenges, which crystallize ideas and spur something uniquely apt for the moment. Music that does that is like an aroma that stirs a memory of how we felt, what we were doing at the time. “He Lives” came about apparently as Ackley also studied the bible’s resurrection accounts, the fast-paced, exciting story of Jesus’ rising. The story he read was as real for him, undoubtedly, as the Jewish student’s question and the radio address that fired his spirit that Easter in 1932. Ackley’s method sounds effective, kinda like so many others who’ve composed. Live life, address challenges, read your bible, greet the world with an answer. Give it a try.    

    

 Information on the song was obtained from the books  “Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions”, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; “The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.; and “Then Sings My Soul”, by Robert J. Morgan, 2003, Thomas Nelson, Inc.   

See this site for further biography: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/a/c/k/ackley_ah.htm