He Keep Me Singing

He Keep Me Singing is sometimes also referred to as Sweetest Name I know. The song was written by Luther B. Bridgers. Bridgers was born on February 14, 1884 in Margarettsville, North Carolina. He grew up assisting their father with revival meetings. He became an ordained minister in 1908-1909 after completing his training at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. He married Sarah Jane “Sallie” Veatch and they would have three sons. Luther Bridgers is described as a “gifted singer” and wrote a number of hymns. “Keeps Me Singing as I Go” is his best known hymn. It was first published in Charles D. Tilman’s 1910 The Revival Hymnal #6. The tune was taken from a popular love song of the day “Melody of Love” which had been written by Hans Engelmann. Sarah and the children were visiting her parents home in Harrodsburg, Kentucky on March 26, 1911 when they were killed in a house fire. One can only imagine how much sweeter the words to this song became to Rev. Bridgers, who is described as a “powerful preacher in revival meetings throughout the South”. In 1914, he married Aline Winburn and they had one son together. During World War I, Bridgers took part in missionary efforts throughout Europe and Russia.
Asbury College awarded Bridgers an honorary Doctorate of Divinity in 1921 for his “greatly successful evangelistic work”. In the 1930s and 1940s, Bridgers pastored several churches in Atlanta, Georgia. He died on May 27, 1948, Jake Hess, Babbie Mason and Slim Whitman have all recorded “He Keeps Me Singing”.