Son of a Ger­man Re­formed Church pas­tor, Ex­cell start­ed his work­ing life as a brick­lay­er and plas­ter­er. His love of mu­sic called him though, and he went to Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, to stu­dy un­der George Root. Ex­cell went on to found sing­ing schools at var­i­ous lo­ca­tions in Amer­i­ca, and to ex­pand in­to the re­li­gious field, work­ing with evan­gel­ist Sam Jones for two de­cades. Ex­cell wrote over 2,000 Gos­pel songs, and worked at a mu­sic pub­lish­ing house in Chi­ca­go. His works in­clude:

• Triumphant Songs (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: E. O. Ex­cell, 1889)
• Triumphant Songs No. 3 (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: E. O. Ex­cell, 1892)
• The Gospel Hym­nal (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: Jen­nings & Pye, 1899)
• Famous Hymns, with Dan­i­el Town­er (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: The Bi­ble In­sti­tute Col­port­age As­so­ci­a­tion, 1907)
• Joy to the World (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Hope Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny, 1915)
• Songs of Evan­gel­ism, with George Schuler & E. W. Bie­der­wolf (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Glad Tid­ings Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny, 1925)
• The Ex­cell Hym­nal, with Hamp Sew­ell & W. E. M. Hack­le­man (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: E. O. Ex­cell Com­pa­ny, 1925)

• Erickson, p. 288
• Hustad, p. 238
• Hall, pp. 299-302

1. Beclouded Long My Way Has Been
2. By Faith the Lamb of God S see
3. Come to the Sav­ior
4. Grace, Enough for Me
5. Hear the Sav­ior Sweet­ly Say­ing
6. Hear You Not the Voice of Je­sus?
7. Hiding
8. His Love Is All I Need
9. I Am Hap­py in Him
10. I Need Thee, Gra­cious One
11. I Was Out on the Ocean Sail­ing
12. In Look­ing Through My Tears One Day
13. In Vain I’ve Tried a Thou­sand Ways
14. Jesus In­vit­ed Me to Come un­to Him
15. Jesus Is a Friend of Mine
16. Jesus Is Wait­ing to Save
17. Keep Me at the Foot of the Cross
18. Knocking, Knock­ing with Pierc­ed Hands
19. List, the Spi­rit Calls to Thee
20. Little Bit of Love, A
21. Love of Je­sus, Who Can Tell, The
22. I’ve Washed My Robes
23. My Soul Is So Hap­py in Je­sus
24. Praise His Ho­ly Name
25. Praise Ye the Fa­ther
26. See Je­ho­vah’s Ban­ner Furled
27. Since I Have Been Re­deemed
28. To Thee, Our Own, Our Na­tive Land
29. We Shall Stand Be­fore the King
30. We’re Go­ing Home, We’ll Soon Be There
31. What Will You Do?

1. Count Your Bless­ings
2. God’s Ho­ly Book
3. Golden Shore, The
4. His Glo­ry Fills My Soul
5. His Love Can Ne­ver Fail
6. Hope Set Be­fore You, The
7. I Come to Thee
8. I Do, Don’t You?
9. I Saw One Hang­ing on a Tree
10. I Will Fol­low Thee
11. Iconium
12. I’ll Be a Sun­beam
13. In the Sha­dow of His Wings
14. Jesus Bids Us Shine
15. Let Him In
16. Offering, The
17. Scatter Sun­shine
18. Some One Who Knows
19. Spend One Hour with Je­sus
20. That Old, Old Sto­ry Is True
21. What Would Je­sus Do?
22. Will Your Heart Ring True?
23. Your Best Friend Is Al­ways Near