Of all the songs associated with the name of Charles M. Alexander, the noted gospel singer, perhaps the "Glory Song" stands first. Both the words and music of it were written in Chicago by Charles H. Gabriel, one of the most popular gospel hymn writers of America.
“I remember quite well," Alexander once wrote, "the first time I ever saw this song. In looking over a new hymn book, I just glanced at it, and said, 'That man has wasted a page, for I do not believe that song will be sung much.'
“Some months later, however, I stepped into a large Sunday school convention, and the audience was singing it. It took such a hold of me that I could think of nothing else for days thereafter. I got all my friends to singing it. I dreamed about it. I awoke to the rhythm of it. Then I began to teach it to large audiences. Soon whole towns were ringing with the thrilling refrain.”
The "Glory Song" captured Melbourne, Australia, in a single night. From there it swept through the down-under continent. At the close of the first revival campaign held by Dr. R. A. Torrey and Mr. Alexander in Melbourne, it seemed that everybody in the city was singing the "Glory Song." People going away on the suburban trains sang it. Brass bands played it. It was sung and played in all sorts of out-of-the-way places. On the last day in Melbourne the singer had to rise early to catch a train. As he came out of his hotel room, the maid was scrubbing the floor of the hall outside the door and softly crooning:
“When by His grace, I shall look on His face,
That will be glory for me.”
He went down to the hotel office, and took the receiver off the telephone to call up a friend across the city. As he placed the receiver to his ear, he heard the girl at the telephone exchange singing as she clicked the pegs into their places:
“Oh, that will be glory for me.”
As Alexander was en route to an appointment, his train passed through a town where lived a couple whom he knew. They came down to the station to see him, and they had a few words together. The lady said, "Mr. Alexander, I am sure you will be interested to know 'anything about the 'Glory Song.' I learned it at the meetings in Melbourne. I have been over today to see a friend on her death-bed. I sang one verse of the `Glory Song,' and she said, 'Oh, that is glorious; please sing another.' I sang another, and while I was singing the chorus, 'When by His grace I shall look on His face,' she passed to see the King in His beauty.
The words of the "Glory Song" have been widely distributed all over the globe. Translated into Chinese, Zulu, Welsh, German, Italian, Danish, and other languages, it has been used of God to comfort and bless saint and sinner in many instances. Indeed, it has been the means of bringing some under the sound of the gospel, and thus to the Savior. Such a case was the following incident: When Dr. Torrey and Charles Alexander were conducting an evangelistic campaign in the great Town Hall of Sydney, Australia, leaflets with the "Glory Song," words and music, were widely distributed. An invitation to the meetings was printed at the bottom, and people were requested, if they already possessed a copy of the song-book, to post the leaflets to friends in the country who never get new songs, or to put them in parcels that were to be sent away.
One day, after they had been asked to do this, a lady, when she reached home, was wrapping some shoes to be mended. She happened to think about her "Glory Song" leaflet, and put it into the bundle with the shoes.
The next day she went down to the shoemaker's to get them. There the old fellow was, pegging away, with the tears rolling down his cheeks. She asked, "What is the matter?”
The answer came: "Do you remember the 'Glory Song' that you put into the bundle? Last night I got my little family round the organ and we sang it. Then I noticed the invitation to come to the Town Hall and hear Torrey and Alexander. It was late, but I went. I heard that man Torrey preach about the Savior on the cross, and I gave my heart to God. Now I have sent my wife and children up to this afternoon's meeting, and I am just here praying that God will save them.”
And God did save them! The next night the whole family were at the meeting and publicly confessed their acceptance of Jesus Christ.