Ackley showed mu­sic­al tal­ent ear­ly, learn­ing the me­lo­de­on, pi­ano, cor­o­net, clar­i­net and pic­co­lo as a boy. Af­ter mov­ing to New York Ci­ty in 1888, he be­gan play­ing the or­gan in sev­er­al church­es. In 1907, he joined the Billy Sun­day-Hom­er Rod­e­heav­er evan­gel­ism team as sec­re­tary-pi­an­ist, and tra­veled with them for eight years. As a com­pos­er and ed­i­tor with the Ro­de­heav­er Com­pa­ny, he wrote over 3,000 Gos­pel tunes. His works in­clude:

• Best Tem­per­ance Songs (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: The Glad Tid­ings Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny, 1913) (music ed­it­or)

• Emurian, pp. 121-4
• Hustad, pp. 194-5

1. Ackley
2. All the Way with Je­sus
3. Behold, He Com­eth
4. Blessèd News
5. By and By
6. Coming Home
7. Faith Will Bring the Bless­ing
8. Good News
9. Hark! I Hear My Name
10. Have You Prayed It Through?
11. He Is Knock­ing
12. He Rose Tri­umph­ant­ly © 1944
13. He Will Not Let Me Fall
14. How You Will Love Him!
15. I Am Com­ing Home
16. I Love Je­sus
17. I Shall Dwell For­ev­er There
18. I Shall See the King
19. I Walk with the King
20. I Want Je­sus © 1933
21. If Thou Shalt Con­fess
22. I Would Be Like Je­sus
23. If Your Heart Keeps Right
24. In the Ser­vice of the King
25. Just Out­side the Door
26. Love Opened Wide the Door
27. Meet Your Trou­bles with a Smile © 1933
28. More Than These
29. Mother’s Pray­ers Have Fol­lowed Me
30. My Mo­ther
31. Once My Way Was Dark and Dreary
32. Pardoning Grace
33. Promise
34. Repent! ’Tis the Voice of Je­sus
35. Room for You
36. Satisfied
37. Shout and Sing
38. Since the Full­ness of His Love Came In
39. Somebody Else Needs a Bless­ing
40. Somebody Knows
41. Speak to Me On­ly of Je­sus
42. Sunrise
43. There Is Joy in Serv­ing Je­sus (1931)
44. There’s a Rain­bow Shin­ing Some­where © 1939
45. There Will I Fol­low Thee
46. This My Plea
47. Transformed
48. Wealth of All Hea­ven Is Mine, The © 1928
49. What Can I Ask Be­side?
50. Where the Cross Is Lead­ing
51. Who Will Open Mer­cy’s Door?