Gospel Greats -- 'Are You Washed in the Blood?' Quiz

Answer: cleansing

The missing word is 'cleansing'.

Elisha Hoffman wrote the words to 'Are You Washed in the Blood?' and composed the music in 1878. According to the Website Wholesomewords.org, Hoffman was born May 7, 1839 in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. The Website reports his parents Francis and Rebecca Hoffman, were of German extraction and his father was an evangelical pastor, serving more than sixty years in preaching the Word.

Answer: Lamb

The missing word is 'Lamb'.

Elisha Hoffman, writer of the hymn 'Are You Washed in the Blood?', graduated from Union Seminary in Pennsylvania in 1868 and ended up serving in Ohio. "As a minister he was appointed to the circuit in Napoleon, Ohio, in 1872," Hymnary.org reports. "He served in many chapels and churches in Cleveland and in Grafton in the 1880s, among them Bethel Home for Sailors and Seamen, Chestnut Ridge Union Chapel, Grace Congregational Church and Rockport Congregational Church."

Answer: grace

The missing word is 'grace'.

According to Hymnary.org, Elisha Hoffman, writer of 'Are You Washed in the Blood?', wrote more than 2,000 hymns, a number of which remain popular today. Some of his other popular hymns include 'Leaning On the Everlasting Arms', 'Down At the Cross Where My Savior Died', 'What a Fellowship, What a Joy Divine', 'I Must Tell Jesus' and 'Is Your All on the Altar?'

Answer: soul cleansing

The missing words are 'soul cleansing'.

Although Elisha Hoffman was a major force on the Christian music scene in the 1800s, the Website Wholesomewords.org reports his musical education was limited.
"He was not a graduate of any school of music, but he was a natural musician," the Website reports. "All the musical knowledge he had was gained by personal application."

Wholesomewords.org goes on to state Hoffman's first impressions of music came from hearing the voice of sacred song in the home. "His parents both had sweet voices and sang well," the Website states. "It was their custom, in the hour of family worship, both morning and evening, to sing one or two hymns. At an early age, the children became familiar with these hymns and learned to love them and to feel their hallowing and refining power."

Answer: spotless

The missing word is 'spotless'.

In addition to writing an estimated 2,000 hymns, Wholesomewords.org reports Elisha Hoffman assisted in the compiling and editing of fifty different hymnbooks, some of which "received marked favor and were issued in large editions." The Website also reports a large number of Hoffman's hymns have been translated into other languages.

Answer: walking

The missing word is 'walking'.

As stated in the answer to Question No. 5, Elisha Hoffman compiled and edited fifty different hymn books during his life. According to Hymntime.com, some of the titles of the hymnals include 'The Evergreen' (1873), 'Spiritual Songs for Gospel Meetings and the Sunday School' (1878), 'Temperance Jewels' (1879), 'Sunday School Songs' (1880), 'Bells of Victory' (1888) and 'The Temple of Praise' (1888). The hymn books were published by a variety of publishing companies.

Answer: rest

The missing word is 'rest'.

According to Wikipedia, Elisha Hoffman, writer of 'Are You Washed in the Blood?', married Susan M. Orwig in 1866. He was 26 and she was 22. Wikipedia goes to to state his wife died in 1876, leaving him a single parent of their three sons. Three years later, he married his second wife, Emma, and they had a baby boy, adding to the three boys from his first marriage.

Answer: robes

The missing word is 'robes'.

After serving as pastor for a number of years in Ohio, Elisha Hoffman, writer of the hymn 'Are You Washed in the Blood?', went on to serve at churches in Illinois and Michigan. "His longest post was held at the Benton Harbor Presbyterian Church in Michigan where he served for 33 years," Wikipedia states. "It was during these years in ministry that Hoffman composed the bulk of his hymns."

Answer: mansions

The missing word is 'mansions'

Some churches have apparently stopped using 'Are You Washed in the Blood?' because they don't like the connotation of the words. Robert Cottrill of Wordwisehymns.com gives this perspective: "Sadly, there are those in the professing church today who want to do away with references to the Savior's shed blood. However, to do that, they have to revise the Scriptures themselves. The Bible says Christ loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood (Rev. 1:5), and it speaks of those who will triumph in the Tribulation as having 'washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb' (Rev. 7:14) -- truths which Hoffman makes use of. Both for salvation from sin (Eph. 1:7) and for the believer's cleansing, so we can walk in fellowship with the Lord (Eph. 2:13; I Jn. 1:7, 9), we need the remedy made possible by the blood shed on Calvary."

Answer: unclean

The missing word is 'unclean'.

According to the Website Popularhymns.com, 'Are You Washed in the Blood?'
is based on Revelation 7:14. The verse in the New King James Version Bible states, in part, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

Elisha Hoffman died November 25, 1929, in Chicago and is buried at Oak Woods Cemetery in that city.

Here are the words to the old-time hymn 'Are You Washed in the Blood?'

"Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Refrain:
Are you washed in the blood,
In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Are you walking daily by the Savior's side?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the Crucified?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

[Refrain]

When the Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Will your soul be ready for the mansions bright,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb?

[Refrain]

Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb;
There's a fountain flowing for the soul unclean,
O be washed in the blood of the Lamb!

[Refrain]"