Introduction

Biography

Alexander’s ear­ly Chris­tian in­flu­ence came from his mo­ther, who was in the hab­it of read­ing Dwight L. Moo­dy ser­mons to the fa­mi­ly ev­ery night around the fire­place. At an 1880 re­vi­val, Al­ex­and­er ac­cept­ed Christ. He at­tend­ed Moo­dy Bi­ble In­sti­tute 1892–94, then toured with the M. B. Will­iams re­vi­val cam­paign. In 1902, he joined Reu­ben Tor­rey’s Aus­tral­ian tour.

In 1904, Al­ex­ander mar­ried Hel­en Cad­bu­ry, daugh­ter of the Cad­bu­ry Cho­co­late Com­pa­ny pre­si­dent. She toured with him on the evan­gel­is­tic cir­cuit as a wo­men’s work­er. To­ge­ther they spread The Pock­et Tes­ta­ment League around the world.

In 1907 he and Wil­bur Chap­man con­duct­ed the Chap­man-Al­ex­an­der Si­mul­ta­ne­ous Camp­aign. In 1909, the two men launched a world­wide cam­paign, de­part­ing Van­cou­ver, Brit­ish Co­lum­bia, on March 26, 1909, and re­turn­ing No­vem­ber 26. Stops along the way inc­lud­ed Mel­bourne, Syd­ney, Ips­wich, Bris­bane, Ade­laide, Bal­la­rat, Ben­di­go, and Towns­ville, Aus­tral­ia; Ma­ni­la, Phil­ip­pines; Hong Kong, Can­ton (now Guang­zhou), Shang­hai, Han­kou (now Wu­han), Bei­jing and Tient­sin (now Tian­jin), China; Seoul, Ko­rea; and Kobe, Ky­oto, Yo­ko­ha­ma and To­kyo, Ja­pan.

In 1918, Chap­man re­tired to Eng­land, where he spent the rest of his life. He was in­duct­ed in­to the Gos­pel Mu­sic Hall of Fame in 1991.

Works

• Revival Hymns, with Dan­iel Tow­ner (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Bi­ble In­sti­tute Col­por­tage As­so­cia­tion, 1905)
• Alexander’s Gos­pel Songs (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1908)
• Alexander’s Gos­pel Songs No. 8 (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1908)
• Alexander’s Hymns of Praise No. 1 (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1909)
• Alexander’s Songs of the Gos­pel No. 1 (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1909)
• Alexander’s Gos­pel Songs No. 2 (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1910)
• Songs for the Ser­vice of Christ (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1910)
• Work and Wor­ship (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1910)
• New Gos­pel Hymns (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1911)
• Alexander’s Male Choir, 1912
• Immanuel’s Praise, with J. Fred Schol­field & George Steb­bins (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1914)
• Alexander’s Hymns No. 3 (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1915)
• Alexander’s Hymns No. 2, Ca­na­di­an edi­tion (To­ron­to, Ca­na­da: West­mins­ter Com­pa­ny, 1916)
• Montreat Hymns (Mon­treat, North Ca­ro­li­na: Moun­tain Re­treat As­so­cia­tion, 1916)
• Songs of the As­sem­bly, with John F. Car­son, Wil­bur Chap­man & Ford C. Ott­man (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1916)
• Alexander’s Gos­pel Songs and So­los (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Ster­ling Mu­sic, 1917)
• Alexander’s Male Choir (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Ster­ling Mu­sic, 1917)
• Conference Hym­nal (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Ster­ling Mu­sic, 1917)
• Northfield Hym­nal No. 3 (East North­field, Mas­sa­chu­setts: The Book­store, 1918)
• Victorious Life Hymns (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Sun­day School Times, 1919)
• National Bap­tist Con­ven­tion Hym­nal (Pitts­burgh, Penn­syl­van­ia: League Pub­lish­ing, 1919)
• Foundation Hymns (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Bi­ble Con­fer­ence Com­mit­tee)
• Hymnal of the Bal­ti­more Con­fer­ence on Chris­tian Fun­da­men­tals (Bal­ti­more, Ma­ry­land: 1919)
• Alexander’s Hymns No. 4, with Ed­win Book­my­er (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Ster­ling Mu­sic, 1921)
• Alexander’s New Re­viv­al Hym­nal (Mor­gan & Scott, 1922)
• Alexander’s Gos­pel Hymn Book No. 2 (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1928)
• Alexander’s Gos­pel Hymn Book No. 3 (New York: Flem­ing H. Re­vell, 1928)