Born: Feb­ru­a­ry 27, 1838, Duncannon, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Died: Sep­tem­ber 20, 1921, Ger­man­town, Penn­syl­vania.

Buried: Laurel Hill Cem­e­tery, Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia.

Son of a school teach­er and mu­si­cian, Kirk­pat­rick grew up in a mu­sic­al at­mo­sphere. In 1854, he went to Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia, to stu­dy mu­sic and learn a trade; he spent over three years as a car­pen­ter. But he was more in­ter­est­ed in mu­sic than me­chan­ics, de­vot­ing all his lei­sure time to its stu­dy. His am­bi­tion at the time was to be­come a vi­o­lin­ist.

In 1855, Kirkpatrick joined the Whar­ton Street Meth­od­ist Epis­co­pal Church in Phil­a­del­phia, and from then on de­vot­ed him­self most­ly to sac­red mu­sic, giv­ing his serv­ices to the choir and Sun­day school. As there were few church or­gans in that day, his vi­o­lin and cel­lo were in con­stant de­mand for choir re­hears­als, sing­ing so­ci­e­ties, and church pro­grams. Dur­ing this time he wrote a num­ber of un­pub­lished hymn tunes and an­thems.

Kirkpatrick stu­died vo­cal mu­sic un­der Pro­fess­or T. Bi­shop, then a lead­ing ora­tor­io and bal­lad sing­er. He be­came a mem­ber of the Har­mon­ia and Han­del and Hay­dn Sac­red Mu­sic So­ci­e­ties, where he heard the great­est sing­ers of the day and be­came fa­mil­iar with the prin­ci­pal chor­al works of the great com­pos­ers. Kirk­pat­rick’s first pub­lished com­po­si­tion was When the Spark of Life Is Wan­ing, which ap­peared around 1858 in the Mu­sic­al Pi­o­neer in New York. He went on to pub­lish about 50 hymn col­lect­ions, ma­ny in col­lab­o­ra­tion with John Swe­ney. His works in­clude:

Sources

Music

  1. All over the World
  2. Alone with God
  3. Beautiful Robes
  4. Beautiful Sab­bath
  5. Blessed Be the Name
  6. Blessing in Pray­er, A
  7. Buried with Christ
  8. By Grace I Will
  9. Calling for You
  10. Calvary’s Stream Is Flow­ing
  11. Come, for All Things Are Ready
  12. Come, Lord, and Let Thy Pow’r
  13. Comforter Has Come, The
  14. Cradle Song
  15. Dear Jesus, Canst Thou Help Me?
  16. Dear to the Heart of the Shep­herd
  17. Deeper Yet
  18. Father All Holy
  19. Gathering Out of Tears
  20. Give Me Thy Heart
  21. Glory To God, Hallelujah
  22. God So Loved the World
  23. Greenwell
  24. Hallelujah! Amen!
  25. Happy Crowning Day, The
  26. Hear and Answer Pray­er
  27. He Hideth My Soul
  28. He Is All in All to Me
  29. Healing at the Fount­ain
  30. His Grace Abound­eth More
  31. I’ll Bear It, Lord, for Thee
  32. In Bethany
  33. In the Book Which Thou Art Keep­ing
  34. In the Twinkling of an Eye
  35. Jesus, My Only Hope
  36. Jesus Only
  37. Jesus Understands!
  38. Keep in the Line
  39. Keep Me Ever Close To Thee
  40. Landås
  41. Lead Me to Cal­va­ry
  42. Let the Light Stream In
  43. Like as a Father
  44. Lilliard
  45. Listen to the Blessed Invita­tion
  46. Lo! the Golden Fields Are Smil­ing
  47. Lord, I’m Coming Home
  48. Meet in the Morning
  49. Meet Me There
  50. Moline
  51. My Heart’s Dear Home
  52. No King but Christ
  53. O to Abide in Jesus
  54. O to Be Like Thee!
  55. On the Cross of Cal­va­ry
  56. Only His Love
  57. Open Bi­ble for the World, An
  58. Praise Jehovah
  59. Praise Ye the Lord
  60. Redeemed
  61. Salva­tion
  62. Saved to the Ut­ter­most
  63. Saxony
  64. Sing, My Soul!
  65. Sing unto God
  66. Singing I Go
  67. Sometime
  68. Stepping in the Light
  69. Ten Thousand Thanks to Je­sus
  70. Thy Ho­ly Spirit, Lord, Alone
  71. ’Tis Burning in My Soul
  72. ’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Je­sus
  73. True Shepherd, The
  74. ’Twill All Be Right at Last
  75. Under the Blood
  76. Very Friend I Need, The
  77. Very Same Jesus, The
  78. Wait, and Murmur Not
  79. Watch and Pray
  80. Watchman, Blow the Gospel Trump­et
  81. We Have an Anchor
  82. We Walk by Faith
  83. Welcome for Me
  84. What Will It Matter?
  85. When Love Shines In
  86. When the Bridegroom Comes
  87. Wingate
  88. You May Have the Joy-Bells

Hymns

  1. Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?