Sweney’s mu­sic­al gift showed it­self at an ear­ly age. While still a boy, he be­gan to teach mu­sic in the pub­lic schools and lead Sun­day school per­form­ances. At age 19, he start­ed stu­dy­ing mu­sic in ear­nest un­der Pro­fess­or Bau­er, a cel­e­brat­ed Ger­man teach­er. He took vi­o­lin and pi­a­no les­sons, and about this time be­came a choir lead­er. He was al­so in con­stant de­mand for child­ren’s con­certs and for con­duct­ing glee clubs.

At age 22, Swe­ney was called to teach in Do­ver, Del­a­ware. When the Amer­i­can civ­il war broke out, he took charge of the band of the Third Del­a­ware Reg­i­ment. Af­ter the war, Swe­ney be­came Pro­fess­or of Mu­sic at the Penn­syl­van­ia Mil­i­tary Acad­e­my in West Ches­ter, Penn­syl­van­ia. He worked there over 25 years, and re­ceived the de­grees of Bach­e­lor of Mu­sic (1876) and Doc­tor of Mu­sic (1886).

Sweney com­posed mu­sic for more than 1,000 Gos­pel songs, and col­lab­o­rat­ed on a num­ber of col­lect­ions. His works in­clude:

• Goodly Pearls, with John J. Hood (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1875)
• Joy to the World, with Tull­i­us O’Kane & C. C. McCabe (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: Hitch­cock and Wald­en, 1879)
• The Wells of Sal­va­tion: Songs for the Sab­bath School, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1881)
• The Roy­al Fount­ain No. 3, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1882)
• The Ark of Praise, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1882)
• Melodious Son­nets, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1885)
• Songs of Joy and Glad­ness, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick et al. (Bos­ton, Mass­a­chu­setts: Mc­Don­ald, Gill & Com­pa­ny, 1885)
• Precious Hymns: For Times of Re­fresh­ing and Re­viv­al, with Thom­as Har­ris­on & Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1885)
• On Joy­ful Wing, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1886)
• Promises of Per­fect Love, with Kel­so Car­ter (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1886)
• Songs of Re­deem­ing Love No. 2, with C. C. Mc­Cabe, Tull­i­us O’Kane & Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1887)
• Showers of Bless­ing,  with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1888)
• Redemption Songs, with L. W. Mun­hall & Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1889)
• The Joy­ful Sound, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1889)
• Living Hymns, with John Wan­a­mak­er (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1890)
• Songs of Joy and Glad­ness No. 2, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick et al. (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Mc­Don­ald, Gill & Com­pa­ny, 1890)
• Sunlit Songs, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick & Hen­ry Gil­mour (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1890)
• Radiant Songs, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick & Hen­ry Gil­mour (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1891)
• Cheerful Songs, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick & Le­an­der Pick­ett (Lou­is­ville, Ken­tucky: Pick­ett Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny, 1891)
• Winning Songs, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick & Hen­ry Gil­mour (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1892)
• Songs of Love and Praise (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1894)
• Songs of Love and Praise, No. 2, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick & Hen­ry Gil­mour (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1895)
• Songs of Love and Praise, No. 3, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick & Hen­ry Gil­mour (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1896)
• Songs of Love and Praise, No. 4, with How­ard Ent­wisle & Hen­ry Gil­mour (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1897)
• Songs of Love and Praise, No. 5, with Frank Da­vis & How­ard Ent­wisle (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1898)
• The Bow of Promise, with George D. El­der­kin, C. C. Mc­Cabe, Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick & F. A. Har­din (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: R. R. Mc­Cabe & Com­pa­ny, 1898)
• Bright Mel­o­dies, with How­ard Ent­wisle (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1899)

• Hall, pp. 149-52
• Randel, pp. 892-3

1. Sing On

1. Adopted
2. All Glo­ry Be Thine
3. All Is Rea­dy
4. Almost
5. As the Bird Flies Home
6. At the Break­ing of the Day
7. Awake! Awake!
8. Awake, Awake! O Heart of Mine!
9. Awake, O Zi­on’s Daugh­ter
10. Balm in Sec­ret Pray­er
11. Bells Are Call­ing, The
12. Berkeley
13. Bermuda
14. Beulah Land
15. Blest, Blest For­ev­er
16. Bratislava
17. Break Forth, O Joy­ful Heart
18. By the Grace of God We’ll Meet
19. Calvary
20. Close Thy Heart No More
21. Come Bold­ly to the Throne of Grace
22. Come in, O Bless­èd One
23. Coming to Je­sus
24. Conquering Now and Still to Con­quer
25. Cova da Ir­ia
26. Dragicevic
27. Endure to the End
28. Everlasting Song, The
29. Fairer Than the Morn­ing
30. Falter Not
31. Fill Me Now
32. From the Cross to the Crown
33. Glory
34. Go Work in the Vine­yard
35. God’s Ho­ly Church Shall Tri­umph
36. Going Home Re­joic­ing
37. Golden Key
38. Good News
39. Handful of Leaves, A
40. Have Com­pass­ion, Lord, on Me!
41. He Feed­eth His Flock
42. He Saves Me Through and Through
43. He Set the Joy-Bells Ring­ing
44. He Will Ga­ther the Wheat
45. Hillsdale
46. Hilton Head
47. His Child For­ev­er­more
48. His Love Pass­eth Know­ledge
49. Holy, Ho­ly, Is What the An­gels Sing
50. Hour of Pray­er, The
51. How Oft We Are There
52. I Have a Friend
53. I Have En­tered Beu­lah Land
54. I Live but in Thee
55. It Is Good to Be Here
56. Jesus, Keep Me Near Thee
57. Jesus Leads
58. Jesus Will Wel­come Me There
59. Joyfully Sing
60. King’s High­way, The
61. Knock of the Nail-Pierc­èd Hand, The
62. Lake Ta­hoe
63. Lost Are Coming Home, The
64. Medan
65. More About Je­sus
66. Morning Draw­eth Nigh, The
67. Music of the An­gels
68. My Rest
69. My Sav­ior First of All
70. My Soul Shouts Glo­ry
71. New Song, The
72. No Cross for Me?
73. No Voice But Thine
74. O Bless­èd Word
75. O Church of God, Arise!
76. O Fly to Him
77. On Let Us Go
78. Only a Beam of Sun­shine
79. Only Once You Pass This Way
80. Onward, Ye Pil­grims
81. Out in the Sun­shine
82. Out on the De­sert
83. Peace to My Soul
84. Phares
85. Phinehas
86. Praise, Praise His Name
87. Precious Mo­ments
88. Press On, Press On, Ye Work­ers
89. Rainbow Round the Throne, The
90. Redeemed, and with the Price of Blood
91. Revive the Hearts of All
92. Rock in the De­sert
93. Room for the World
94. Safe in the Glo­ry Land
95. Savior with Me, The
96. Schindler
97. Seek Ye First
98. Send Out the Sun­light
99. Shepherd’s Fold on High, The
100. Shining for Je­sus
101. Shout in the Camp, A
102. Showers of Bless­ing
103. Simple, Ear­nest Pray­er, The
104. Since I Found My Sa­vior
105. Sing Once More of Je­sus
106. Singing of Je­sus
107. Smile from Je­sus, A
108. Some Heart Has Gone This Way Be­fore
109. Speak for Je­sus
110. Sunshine in the Soul
111. Standing on the Bat­tle­ments
112. Step in­to the Fount­ain
113. Sweet As­sur­ance
114. Sweet Sto­ry of Je­sus
115. Take the World, but Give Me Je­sus
116. Tell It Out with Glad­ness
117. Tell Me the Sto­ry of Je­sus
118. Tell the Bless­èd Sto­ry
119. Tell the Whole Wide World
120. Thou Wilt Re­mem­ber Me
121. Till the Boat Comes By
122. ’Tis Sum­mer in My Heart
123. Unsearchable Rich­es
124. Wait on the Lord
125. Waiting for Me
126. Waiting for the Prom­ise
127. Walking in the Good Old Way
128. We All Can Do Good
129. We Are Near­ing
130. What More Can He Do?
131. When Each Others Face We See
132. Will There Be Any Stars?
133. Will You Come?