Charles Alexander
1867 - 1920

"I have yet to see the first church that remained empty for long where each person entered heartily into the singing of hymns. In order to maintain this equality [between preaching and singing], every individual must be made to feel his responsibility in the singing part of the worship."

"Charlie," as he was known to thousands who attended the great revival crusades of R. A. Torrey and J. Wilbur Chapman, was a gifted musician. His wife said, "No one who ever heard Charles Alexander sing needed to be told that he, like the birds, sang because there was within him a holy impulse which he could not resist. It was not his profession to sing; it was his life."

Charles Alexander was born in East Tennessee in 1867. His father had fought for the Union Army in the Civil War.

Alexander's mother read the sermons of D. L. Moody to her family at night around the fireplace. Alexander was saved during a revival meeting when he was thirteen.

Alexander attended Moody Bible Institute 1892-1894, making the acquaintance of R. A. Torrey with whom he would work so closely in later years. After graduation, he worked with M. B. Williams in revival campaigns in the Midwest. In 1902 he accepted an invitation from Dr. Torrey to serve as song leader in the first Australian crusade. It was during this meeting that the "Glory Song" first came to popularity. "At the close of the campaign," Alexander wrote, "it seemed everyone in the city was singing the 'Glory Song.'"

In 1908 he agreed to serve as song leader for Dr. Chapman in his return to evangelistic crusades. For the next ten years these two men carried the Gospel around the world in sermon and song. Alexander died in 1920 at his home in England which he called "Tennessee." He is buried in Birmingham, England, at the Lodge Hill Cemetery. On his tombstone the words of the last stanza of the "Glory Song" are inscribed: "When by the gift of His infinite grace, I am accorded in Heaven a place, Just to be there and to look on his face, Will through the ages be glory for me."