The Ninety and Nine

One of my favorite hymns is "The Ninety and Nine" - it assures me that my Savior will never abandon me. The author of the words, Eliszabeth Clephane, never lived long enough to hear her words put to music. She wrote it as a poem for children in 1868. It was torn out of a religious paper by Ira D. Sankey and placed in his pocket as an afterthought. In 1874, Ira was in a rivival meeting in Edinburg Schotland with Dwight Moody. Following a powerful sermon Moody asked Ira to sing something appropriate. He thought of the poem in his pocket and pulled it out, placing it on the organ. He sang composing the song as he went - the audience was greatly moved. In fact, Ira related that "Mr. Moody was in tears, and so was I." The hymn remains unchanged to this day.