1879–1939

Introduction

portrait

Born: No­vem­ber 13, 1879, La­fay­ette, Il­li­nois.

Died: Oc­to­ber 9, 1939, Los An­ge­les, Ca­li­for­nia.

Buried: Val­hal­la Me­mo­ri­al Park, Los An­ge­les, Ca­li­for­nia. His epi­taph reads I Have Fought a Good Fight.

portrait

Biography

Herbert was the son of John Wes­ley Buf­fum and Alice Ann Mal­lo­ry, and hus­band of Lil­lie May Fas­sett.

After mov­ing with his fa­mi­ly to Ca­li­for­nia and con­vert­ing to Christ at age 18, Buf­fum felt a call to the min­is­try. He held min­is­te­ri­al cre­den­tials with the Church of the Na­za­rene, and was a Ho­li­ness Pen­te­cos­tal evan­gel­ist.

He was al­so a pro­li­fic song writ­er, with ma­ny songs in­spired by per­son­al ex­pe­ri­ence. He had 10,000 songs to his cre­dit, 1,000 ac­tu­al­ly pub­lished. Rip­ley’s Be­lieve It or Not claimed he once wrote 12 songs in an hour.

Though a tal­ent­ed mu­si­cian, Buf­fum re­ceived no mu­sic­al train­ing. He sold most of his songs for five dol­lars or less. When he died, the Los An­ge­les Times called him the king of Gos­pel song writ­ers.

Sources

Lyrics

  1. My Sheep Know My Voice
  2. All My Child­hood I Hat­ed
  3. Awful Days of Tri­bu­la­tion
  4. Come Now to Je­sus, He Call­eth Thee
  5. Could We Catch the Glist­en­ing of the Dew
  6. Cross That Was Plant­ed on Cal­va­ry’s Brow, The
  7. Devil Now Is Rag­ing, The
  8. Do Not Be Dis­cour­aged When the Dark Clouds Come
  9. Do Not Sing, Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown?
  10. Down in the Depths of the Spi­rit Filled Life
  11. Ever Since I Start­ed Out to Fol­low Je­sus
  12. Every Day Has Its Sun­set
  13. Fight Is On, The
  14. Get a Smile from Je­sus
  15. God Can Make a Way When There Is No Way
  16. Have the Dark Clouds Set­tled
  17. Have You Ev­er Wan­dered Away from Your Home?
  18. He Abides
  19. He Keeps on Lov­ing Us Still
  20. Heathen at Your Door, The
  21. Heaven Comes Down My Soul to Greet
  22. Here So Ma­ny Are Tak­ing Va­ca­tion
  23. I Belong to Je­sus, He’s My Friend
  24. I Could Not Tell in Ma­ny Years
  25. I Dreamed I Had Searched All Through Hea­ven for You
  26. I Find a Safe and Sure Re­treat
  27. I Had Wan­dered Far from the Fold
  28. I Have a Friend Who Is Al­ways the Same
  29. I Have a Hal­le­lu­jah Cho­rus in My Soul
  30. I Have Heard the Call for Work­ers
  31. I Have Said I Will to Je­sus
  32. I Hope to Live Till Je­sus Comes
  33. I Know Not Why My Way Is Hedged About
  34. I Love My Bless­ed Sav­ior No Mat­ter What He Sends
  35. I Love My Sav­ior, So I Sel­dom Stop
  36. I May Not Al­ways Un­der­stand
  37. I Nev­er Loved Je­sus as I Love Him Now
  38. I One Time Felt a Pi­ty for the Chris­tians
  39. I Want to Be Rea­dy When Je­sus Comes Back
  40. I Want to Go Deep­er in Je­sus
  41. I Was a Stub­born Child
  42. I Was Feel­ing Bowed Down
  43. I Was Just as Wretch­ed as a Soul Could Be
  44. If Bur­dened Your Heart
  45. If Death End­ed All and if Man Had No Soul
  46. If the Bi­ble Is True, There Is Hea­ven to Gain
  47. If You Have Ere List­ened to God’s Ten­der Voice
  48. If You Have Grown Wea­ry and Heart-Sick of Sin
  49. If You Would En­ter Hea­ven
  50. If Your Sins Are All For­giv­en and Your Heart Is Clean
  51. If Your Sins Have Been Forgiv­en You
  52. I’m a Pil­grim and a Stran­ger
  53. I’m but a Pil­grim Here Be­low
  54. I’m Go­ing High­er Some Day
  55. I’m Go­ing Through
  56. I’m Hav­ing a Good Time with Je­sus
  57. I’m in Love with Je­sus, the Lov­er of My Soul
  58. I’m So Glad That Je­sus Came
  59. In God’s Cal­en­dar of Days
  60. In Me­di­ta­tion Deep One Night
  61. In the Cen­ter of God’s Will I’m Sweet­ly Rest­ing
  62. In the Ci­ty Where the Lamb Is the Light
  63. In the Hol­low of His Hand
  64. Isn’t He Won­der­ful?
  65. It May Not Seem Wel­come Now
  66. I’ve Been Tra­vel­ing for Je­sus
  67. I’ve En­tered into Ca­naan from Egypt’s Bond­age
  68. I’ve Start­ed Out to Walk the Path­way to Hea­ven
  69. I’ve Turned My Back For­ev­er on Old Sa­tan
  70. Joy of One Day in His Pre­sence, The
  71. Just a Lit­tle Smile from Je­sus
  72. Just Ahead Are Great­er Things
  73. Keep Look­ing, Keep Look­ing
  74. Let’s Talk About Je­sus
  75. Lift Me Up Above the Sha­dows
  76. Long My Feet Had Wan­dered
  77. Long My Soul Was So Rest­less
  78. Lord, I Long to Be Ho­ly
  79. Love Stands the Test in Ev­ery Try­ing Hour
  80. Made One in Christ, O What a Bliss­ful Un­ion
  81. My Heart Is Fixed, O God on Thee
  82. My Heart Is Run­ning o’er with Praise
  83. My Heart Is So Hap­py in Je­sus
  84. My Heart Was Al­ways Rest­less
  85. My Heart Was Closed to the Sav­ior’s Knock
  86. My Life Is No Long­er All Tar­nished by Sin
  87. My Life Is Now Hid­den with Christ in God
  88. My Lit­tle Bark Was Tem­pest Tossed
  89. My Sheep Know My Voice
  90. My Sins, Which Were Ma­ny
  91. Nearer, My Lord, to Thee
  92. Not Now: Go, Spi­rit, Go Thy Way
  93. O Do Not Be Dis­cour­aged
  94. O How Well I Re­mem­ber
  95. O Wan­derer Afar from the Dear Shep­herd’s Fold
  96. O Wan­derer, Far from Thy God As­tray
  97. Often I’ve Watched the Clouds
  98. Old-Fa­shioned Meet­ing, The
  99. Once I Saw De­liv­er­ance a Long Way Off
  100. Once I Thought That Glo­ry Land
  101. Out of the Po­wer and Dark­ness of Sin
  102. Praise God for a Pre­sent Sal­va­tion
  103. Praise the Lord for the Blood
  104. Praise the Lord, I Have an All Suf­fi­cient Sav­ior
  105. Prodigal Had Wan­dered, The
  106. Say Not That God His Face Has Hid­den from You
  107. So Many Are Build­ing
  108. So Many Are Say­ing Be­cause of the Times
  109. Some Want Sil­ver, Some Want Gold
  110. Someone Will Come to the Fold To­night
  111. Speak a Lit­tle Word for Je­sus
  112. Take Me in Thy Fold
  113. Tell It Ev­ery­where You Go
  114. There Are Days That We All Have For­got­ten
  115. There Are Lengths and Breadths
  116. There Are Plen­ty of Doubts
  117. There Is On­ly One Way
  118. There Is Soon to Dawn an Ev­er­last­ing Day
  119. There’s a Big Time Com­ing
  120. There’s a Great Lov­ing Fa­ther in Hea­ven
  121. There’s a Keep­er of Books
  122. There’s a Song in My Soul
  123. There’s a Won­der­ful In­ven­tion
  124. There’s Coming a Won­der­ful, Won­der­ful Day
  125. They Led Him Away to Be Cru­ci­fied
  126. Though Dark Be the Way
  127. Though Far You May Wan­der
  128. Though the Hosts of Sin As­sail
  129. Through the Word of Our Tes­ti­mo­ny
  130. Wee Lit­tle Child Had Been Left All Alone, A
  131. What a Won­der­ful, Won­der­ful Love
  132. What Though the Days May Seem Drea­ry
  133. What Though the Way Be Rough
  134. When All Seems Dark
  135. When at Last My Work on Earth
  136. When Days Are Dreary
  137. When First I Was Con­vert­ed
  138. When I Be­come Wea­ry and Tired
  139. When I Take My Va­ca­tion in Hea­ven
  140. When Je­sus Laid Aside the Crown
  141. When Laden with Sin
  142. When Our Work on Earth Is End­ed
  143. When the King Re­turns in Glo­ry
  144. When the Roll Is Called in Hea­ven
  145. When the Tri­als of Life
  146. When We Come to Meet
  147. When We Walk with the Sav­ior
  148. When You Hear the Thun­der Boom­ing
  149. When You Start to Follow Je­sus in the Nar­row Way
  150. When You’re One Step from God
  151. Where Hast Thou Gleaned To­day?
  152. Where I Am Go­ing There Is No Sor­row
  153. While Walk­ing with My Sav­ior
  154. Who Is the One Who Can Give Sweet Peace?
  155. Who Is the One Who Nev­er
  156. Whole World Looks Bright­er and Bet­ter to Me, The
  157. Why Re­pine Be­cause You Can­not Fill
  158. Wonderful Mes­sage I Bring un­to You, A
  159. Would You Know the Mes­sage for This Ve­ry Day?
  160. Would You Know the Sec­ret?
  161. Would You Un­der­stand the Sec­ret?
  162. You Ask Where Is Hea­ven
  163. You Say You Feel the Sav­ior’s Pre­sence