Ackley re­ceived mu­sic­al train­ing from his fa­ther in New York Ci­ty and at the Roy­al Acad­e­my of Mu­sic in Lon­don, and be­came a great cel­lo play­er. Af­ter grad­u­at­ing from West­min­ster The­o­log­ic­al Sem­in­ary in Mar­y­land, he was or­dained a Pres­by­ter­i­an min­is­ter in 1914, and pas­tor­ed in Wilkes-Barre and Elm­hurst, Penn­syl­van­ia, and in Es­con­di­do, Cal­i­for­nia. For a few years he worked with evan­gel­ist Billy Sun­day, and al­so served as as­sist­ant pas­tor of Sha­dy­side Pres­by­ter­i­an Church in Pitts­burgh, Penn­syl­van­ia. He wrote some 1,500 re­li­gious and sec­u­lar songs, and was as­so­ci­at­ed with the Ro­de­heav­er mu­sic com­pa­ny. John Brown Un­i­ver­si­ty in Si­lo­am Springs, Ar­kan­sas, award­ed him an hon­o­ra­ry Doc­tor of Sac­red Mu­sic de­gree. Helen Armacost was his wife.

Sources

Hymns

1. As a Tree Beside the Water
2. Back to the Faith of My Childhood (© 1925)
3. Christ We Forget, The (© 1928)
4. Coming Home
5. God’s Tomorrow (© 1928)
6. God Has Not Forgotten (© 1928)
7. He Will Not Let Me Fall
8. He Lives (© 1933)
9. I Am Coming Home
10. I Can Find Him Everywhere (© 1929)
11. I Never Walk Alone (© 1952)
12. I Want Jesus (© 1933)
13. I Shall Dwell Forever There
14. In the Service of the King
15. Jesus Is the Joy of Living (© 1939)
16. Leaving All to Follow Jesus (© 1933)
17. Love Opened Wide the Door
18. Meet Him at the Cross (© 1936)
19. More Than You Know (© 1933)
20. Pardoning Grace
21. Repent! ’Tis the Voice of Jesus
22. Take Up Thy Cross
23. There Shall Be No Tears (© 1938)
24. There’s a New Day Dawning (1923)
25. There’s a Rainbow in the Sky (© 1930)
26. Somebody Knows
27. Wealth of All Heaven Is Mine, The
28. When I Have Finished My Pilgrimage Here
29. When the World Forgets (© 1925)
30. Wonderful (© 1938)

Music

1. Neither Height, Nor Depth, Nor Breadth