Whittle was named af­ter Amer­i­can pol­i­ti­cian Dan­i­el Web­ster. Whit­tle reached the rank of ma­jor in the Amer­i­can ci­vil war, and for the rest of his life was known as Ma­jor Whit­tle. Dur­ing the war, Whit­tle lost his right arm, and end­ed up in a pris­on­er of war camp. Re­cov­er­ing from his wounds in the hos­pi­tal, he looked for some­thing to read, and found a New Test­a­ment. Though its words res­o­nat­ed with him, he was still not rea­dy to ac­cept Christ. Short­ly af­ter, a hos­pi­tal or­der­ly woke him and said a dy­ing pri­son­er want­ed some­one to pray with him. Whit­tle de­murred, but the or­der­ly said, But I thought you were a Chris­tian; I have seen you read­ing your Bi­ble. Whit­tle then agreed to go. He re­cord­ed what took place at the dy­ing youth’s bed side:

I dropped on my knees and held the boy’s hand in mine. In a few bro­ken words I con­fessed my sins and asked Christ to for­give me. I be­lieved right there that He did for­give me. I then prayed ear­nest­ly for the boy. He be­came qui­et and pressed my hand as I prayed and plead­ed God’s prom­is­es. When I arose from my knees, he was dead. A look of peace had come over his trou­bled face, and I can­not but be­lieve that God who used him to bring me to the Sav­ior, used me to lead him to trust Christ’s pre­cious blood and find par­don. I hope to meet him in hea­ven.

After the war, Whit­tle be­came trea­sur­er of the El­gin Watch Com­pa­ny in Chi­ca­go, Ill­i­nois. In less than 10 years, though, he en­tered the evang­el­ism field. Dur­ing this per­i­od, he worked with mu­si­cians Phil­lip Bliss and James Mc­Gran­a­han. His daugh­ter May Moody al­so wrote mu­sic for some of his lyr­ics.

Of his de­ci­sion to de­vote his life to the Gos­pel, Whitt­le said that, while at work, he:

…went in­to the vault and in the dead si­lence of the qui­et­est of plac­es I gave my life to my Hea­ven­ly Fa­ther to use as He would.

Whittle’s works in­clude:

• Memoirs of Phil­ip P. Bliss (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: A. S. Barnes & Com­pa­ny, 1877)

• Hall, pp. 185-87
• Hustad, p. 340
• Julian, p. 1596
• Reynolds, p. 461

1. Abundant Par­don, God Hath Said
2. All’s Clear Up Aloft
3. As Lives the Flow­er With­in the Seed
4. As Soft­ly Through the Si­lent Hours
5. Awake, Awake, O Chris­tian
6. Banner of the Cross, The
7. Be Care­ful What You Sow
8. Be Near Me, O My Sav­ior
9. Be Not De­ceived; God Is Not Mocked
10. Be Still, My Heart, Thy Sav­ior Knows Full Well
11. Be Ye Strong in the Lord
12. Behold How Plain the Truth Is Made
13. Beloved, Now Are We
14. Beyond Our Sight a Ci­ty Four Square Li­eth
15. Blessèd Hope
16. Blessed Sav­ior, Ever Near­er I Am Draw­ing
17. Brother, Art Thou Worn and Wea­ry?
18. Brothers, by the Spir­it Band­ed
19. Burdened Souls No Lon­ger
20. By Grace Are Ye Saved
21. Call of God Is Sound­ing Clear, The
22. Call of the Roll on High, The
23. Called Out of Dark­ness
24. Carried by the An­gels
25. Christ Hath Redeemed Us, Sing the Glad Word
26. Christ Liv­eth in Me
27. Christian, So Wea­ry and Faint on the Road
28. Church of God Is Come, The
29. Church of God Is One, The
30. Come Be­liev­ing!
31. Come on the Wings of the Morn­ing
32. Come Wea­ry One, Lift Up Your Face
33. Comfort, My People, the Lord Hath Said
34. Complete in Him, O Pre­cious Word
35. Cross of Christ, by Which Sal­va­tion
36. Crowning Day, The
37. Doers of the Word
38. Darkness Is Passed, and the True Light Is Shin­ing, The
39. Drawing Near with Full As­sur­ance
40. Fix Your Eyes up­on Je­sus
41. Glory to God the Fa­ther
42. God Bless You, from the Heart We Sing
43. God Is Now Will­ing, in Christ Re­con­ciled
44. Going Forth at Christ’s Com­mand
45. Have Faith in God, What Can There Be
46. Have You Any Room for Je­sus?
47. He Is Not Here, but Is Ris­en!
48. He Stands, the King of Glo­ry
49. Hope of the Com­ing of the Lord, The
50. How Do I Know My Sin’s For­giv­en?
51. How Sweet the Joy That Fills My Soul
52. I Believed in God’s Won­derf­ul Mer­cy and Grace
53. I Know Whom I Have Be­lieved
54. I Have a Faith in Christ My Lord
55. I Have Need of Sal­va­tion from Sin
56. I Have No­thing to Do with To­mor­row
57. I Looked to Je­sus in My Sin
58. I Shall Be Sa­tis­fied
59. I Thirst, I Thirst, the Sav­ior Said
60. I Will Pass Over You
61. I Will Praise the Lord My Glo­ry
62. I’ll Stand by Un­til the Morn­ing
63. I’ve Found the Life of Tru­est Joy
64. Jesus Is Com­ing
65. Jesus of Naz­a­reth
66. Let Earth with Hal­le­lu­jahs Ring
67. Let the Mes­sage Go Forth
68. Let Us Sing of the Love of the Lord
69. Life Once Was a Mys­te­ry Aw­ful to Me
70. Little While, and He Shall Come, A
71. Living God, Who by His Might, The
72. Look un­to Me, and Be Ye Saved
73. Lord, Teach Us How to Pray
74. Master Is Come and Is Call­ing for Thee, The
75. Moment by Mo­ment
76. More and More the Weight of Glo­ry
77. Much of My Life, Lord, Seems to Me
78. Neither Do I Con­demn Thee
79. Night Is Hea­vy, Long and Drea­ry, The
80. No More the Curse, O Christ
81. Not My Own
82. O Joy­ful Life, to Live for God
83. O Pre­cious Hea­ven­ly Know­ledge
84. O Sweet and Bless­ed Secret
85. O Ten­der Be­seech­ings of Je­sus
86. O What Is Whit­er Than the Snow?
87. Oft With­in a Lit­tle Cot­tage
88. Oh, Re­vive Us by Thy Word
89. Once More, My Soul, Thy Sav­ior Through the Word
90. Once More We Come, God’s Word to Hear
91. One as Much as An­o­ther
92. Our Hearts Are Filled with Joy To­day
93. Over Fields That Are White for the Har­vest
94. Paradise
95. Praise, O Praise Je­ho­vah, Earth and Sea
96. Preach the Gos­pel
97. Redeemed by Christ Who Died for Me
98. Redeemed, Re­deemed, O Sing the Joy­ful Strain
99. Redemption Ground
100. Ring Out the Word from Christ the Lord
101. Sadly from the Field of Con­flict
102. Sin No More, Thy Soul Is Free
103. Spirit So Ho­ly, Spir­it of Love
104. Stand Still, and Trust His Might
105. Storm Is High, but at the Helm, The
106. Stretch Forth Thy Hand, Thy Pal­sied Hand
107. There Is Ne­ver a Soul So Sin­ful
108. There Shall Be Show­ers of Bless­ing
109. There’s a Beau­ti­ful World Above
110. There’s a Glor­i­ous King­dom Wait­ing in the Land
111. There’s a Land Where God His Love De­lights to Show
112. They Tell Me the Sto­ry of Je­sus Is Old
113. To Him Who for Our Sins Was Slain
114. Thou Re­main­est
115. Two Gates, Two Ways, Two Paths for All
116. We Are Go­ing Home
117. We’re Sol­diers of the King
118. When My Heart with Sin Was Bur­dened
119. Who Came Down from Hea­ven to Earth
120. Why Not Now?
121. Word of God Is Gi­ven, The
122. Would We Be Joy­ful in the Lord?
123. Ye Shall Know, O Word of Bless­ing