Man of Sorrows

"Man of Sorrows" was written by Philip Paul Bliss, one of the great gospel songwriters of the nineteenth century, who drew the title from Isaiah 53:3. Bliss was born in a log cabin in rural Pennsylvania in 1838 and grew up in poverty, first hearing a piano at age ten and being so captivated that he devoted his life to music. He became a traveling music evangelist, partnering with Major Daniel Whittle in revival campaigns across America. His songs — including "It Is Well" (for which he composed the tune), "Wonderful Words of Life," and this hymn — shaped American gospel music for generations. "Man of Sorrows" traces the full arc of Christ's redemptive work: His suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and coming again. Tragically, Bliss and his wife Lucy died on December 29, 1876, when the Pacific Express train plunged through a collapsed bridge into the Ashtabula River gorge in Ohio — he was only 38 years old. A trunk recovered from the wreckage was found to contain manuscripts of hymns he had not yet published.