From Katie: A piece of our hearts returned to heaven yesterday, all too soon. Our son Emerson Stirling Gulbrandsen left us shortly after I went into labor on his due date. (03/13/2017) They are not sure the cause, but his little heart just stopped suddenly. We know that he is ours forever and that Heavenly Father has a plan. We are grateful for the prayers and love.
"Whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day.” — Alma 36:3
This is one of the songs we sang today. I needed to hear this and I need to sing it and read it often! More Holiness Give Me #131 More holiness give me, More strivings within, More patience in suff'ring, More sorrow for sin, More faith in my Savior, More sense of his care, More joy in his service, More purpose in prayer. More gratitude give me, More trust in the Lord, More pride in his glory, More hope in his word, More tears for his sorrows, More pain at his grief, More meekness in trial, More praise for relief. More purity give me, More strength to o'ercome, More freedom from earthstains, More longing for home. More fit for the kingdom, More used would I be, More blessed and holy- More, Savior, like thee. “More Holiness Give Me” Author, Philip Bliss Led a Life of Music
Philip Paul Bliss was born on July 9, 1838, in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. He developed an early love of music and singing from hearing his father singing hymns. He did not have much formal education but was taught from the Bible by his mother and eventually became a schoolmaster and later a traveling music teacher.
When he was 10 years old, while selling vegetables to help support the family, Philip first heard a piano and was unable to resist the temptation that lured him through an open door and into the parlor. Barefoot and ragged, he stood spellbound until the music ceased. Philip, in ecstasy, cried out, “O lady, play some more.” The unthinking young lady, surprised at the unexpected intrusion by the ragged stranger, rudely ordered him out of the house, but he left with sweet memories of the music.
From his early 20s on, Bliss had the good fortune to devote his life’s work to music. From 1864 to 1875, he wrote many of the hymns and songs that have made him a well-known name.
Philip P. Bliss was filled with gratitude for his life in music, as this quote shows: "Thus the overruling Providence has led me by unmistakable evidences to see and recognize His dealing with me all through life's journey. Truly we have much to be thankful for. My dear wife, my greatest earthly treasure, joins in the opinion that we are and ever have been highly favored of Heaven; that we find our greatest enjoyment in each other's society, when striving to make each other happy, and our highest aim is to be useful to ourselves and others, and to 'glorify God that we may enjoy Him forever.'"
Bliss and his wife, Lucy, met a tragic end when they lost their lives in a railway crash in Ohio on December 29, 1876, when a bridge gave out. Bliss was last seen alive trying to rescue Lucy from the burning wreckage.
Written in 1873, “More Holiness Give Me” was published in one of his four-song collections called Sunshine for Sunday Schools. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir recorded the hymn for the album Rock of Ages: 30 Great Hymns.
