A gift­ed mu­si­cian, Doane helped di­rect mu­sic while at­tend­ing the Wood­stock Aca­de­my; with­in two years he had pub­lished his first com­po­si­tion. Al­though he called mu­sic his avo­ca­tion, he pro­duced over 2,000 hymn tunes in his life­time. How­ever, his main trade was sec­u­lar: He was pres­i­dent of the J. A. Fay wood­work­ing ma­chin­ery com­pa­ny, and an ex­treme­ly suc­cess­ful bus­i­ness­man. He al­so served as Sun­day School sup­er­in­tend­ent and choir di­rect­or at the Mount Au­burn Bap­tist Church in Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio, and be­queathed large sums to var­i­ous caus­es. The Doane Me­mor­i­al Mu­sic Build­ing at the Moo­dy Bi­ble In­sti­tute in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, was named af­ter him. His works in­clude:

• Sabbath School Gems, 1862
• Songs of De­vo­tion, 1868
• The Sil­ver Spray (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: John Church & Com­pa­ny, 1868)
• Songs of De­vo­tion (New York: 1870)
• Pure Gold for the Sun­day School, with Ro­bert Low­ry (New York: Biglow & Main, 1871)
• Royal Di­a­dem for the Sun­day School, with Ro­bert Low­ry (New York: Big­low & Main: 1873)
• Brightest and Best, with Ro­bert Low­ry (New York: Big­low & Main: 1875)
• Welcome Tid­ings: A New Col­lect­ion of Sac­red Songs for the Sun­day School, with Ro­bert Low­ry & Ira Sank­ey (New York: Big­low & Main, 1877)
• Gospel Hymn and Tune Book, with Ro­bert Low­ry (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: 1879)
• Hymn Ser­vice for the Sun­day School, with Ro­bert Low­ry, D. A. Whe­don & John H. Vin­cent (New York: Big­low & Main: 1879)
• Good as Gold, with Ro­bert Low­ry (New York: Big­low & Main: 1880)
• The Bap­tist Hym­nal (mu­sic­al ed­it­or) (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Amer­i­can Bap­tist Pub­li­ca­tion So­ci­et­y, 1883)
• Joyful Lays, with Ro­bert Low­ry (New York: Big­low & Main, 1884)
• The Glad Re­frain, with Ro­bert Low­ry (New York: Big­low & Main, 1886)
• Select Gems, with Ro­bert Low­ry (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Amer­i­can Bap­tist Pub­li­ca­tion So­ci­et­y, 1889)
• The Bright Ar­ray, with Ro­bert Low­ry (New York: Big­low & Main Com­pa­ny, 1889)
• Sunny-Side Songs for Sun­day Schools (New York: The Big­low & Main Com­pa­ny, 1893)
• Songs of the King­dom (Phil­a­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Amer­i­can Bap­tist Pub­li­ca­tion So­ci­e­ty, 1896)
• Glorious Praise, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick (Lou­is­ville, Ken­tucky: The Bap­tist Book Con­cern, 1904)
• Jubilant Voic­es, with Will­iam Kirk­pat­rick et al. (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Hope Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny, 1907)
• Precious Jew­els of Sac­red Song (Lou­is­ville, Ken­tucky: The World Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny, un­dat­ed)
• Song Evan­gel (Lou­is­ville, Ken­tucky: 1906)

• Hall, pp. 77-81
• Hughes, pp. 370-71
• Hustad, p. 232
• Julian, pp. 304, 1559-60
• Nutter, pp. 405, 455
• Osbeck, p. 212
• Reynolds, pp. 280-81

1. All-Seeing Eye, The
2. Christ Was Born in Beth­le­hem
3. Feast of Bless­ing
4. Like a Bird to Thee
5. No One Knows but Je­sus
6. Pray for the Bless­ing
7. Sounding the Watch-Cry
8. When We All Get Home to Glo­ry

1. Adora­tion
2. Alstyne
3. Avalon
4. Beautiful Vale of Rest
5. Beautiful Wit­ness
6. Benjamin
7. Bethesda Is Open
8. Bless This Hour of Pray­er
9. Blessed Are They That Be­lieve
10. Blessed Feast, The
11. Children Sing
12. Choose Ye To­day
13. Christian Bro­ther, o’er the Main
14. Church of Christ, O Sleep No More
15. City of Gold
16. Colby
17. Come, Great De­liv­er­er, Come!
18. Cross of Je­sus
19. Dear Sab­bath Home
20. Dew of Mer­cy
21. Do All the Good You Can
22. Donora
23. Evangel
24. Faith in Je­sus
25. Few More March­ings Wea­ry, A
26. First Com­mand­ment
27. Good Old Way, The
28. Guard the Bi­ble Well
29. Hand in Hand
30. Hark! There Comes a Whis­per
31. He Gave His Life for Thee
32. Help Us to La­bor On
33. Hide Me
34. His Words Are True
35. Hour by Hour
36. I Am An­chored Safe
37. I Am Thine, O Lord
38. If Any Man Hear
39. If I Come to Je­sus
40. Into the Depths of the Sea
41. Is It There?
42. Jesus Calls Thee
43. Jesus Is Pass­ing This Way
44. Jesus Was a Child Like Me
45. Just a Word for Je­sus
46. Keep Me Whol­ly Thine
47. King of Zi­on
48. Labor On
49. Lay It Down
50. Let Your Light Shine Out
51. Like a Bird to Thee
52. Lion of Ju­dah, The
53. Little Talk with Je­sus, A
54. Moments of Pray­er
55. More Like Je­sus
56. More Love to Thee, O Christ
57. Mother’s Good­bye, The
58. My Pre­cious Bi­ble
59. Near the Cross
60. Never Will I Cease to Love Him
61. No Tears in Hea­ven
62. One Bless­èd Hour with Je­sus
63. Only a Lit­tle Way
64. Only a Step
65. Only One Name
66. Only Thy Gar­ment’s Hem
67. Our Fes­tive Song
68. Out of Bond­age
69. Pass Me Not, O Gen­tle Sav­ior
70. Patriot’s Pray­er, The
71. Pilgrim’s Jour­ney, The
72. Precious Name
73. Preston
74. Prodigal Child, The
75. Pure With­in
76. Rescue
77. Rest in Je­sus
78. Rest over Jor­dan
79. Sacred Foun­tain
80. Safe in the Arms of Je­sus
81. Saved by the Blood
82. Savior, More Than Life
83. Sentinel up­on the Heights
84. Some Sweet Day, By and By
85. Sound the Alarm!
86. Speed for Thy Life
87. Stand by the Right
88. Sweet Voice, The
89. Tell Me the Old, Old Sto­ry
90. There Is Peace
91. They That Over­come
92. Though Your Sins Be as Scar­let
93. ’Tis Not Far to Je­sus
94. ’Tis the Bless­èd Hour of Pray­er
95. To God Be the Glo­ry
96. To Je­sus I Will Go
97. To the Work
98. Too Late
99. Tread Soft­ly
100. Tried and True
101. Trust in the Prom­ise
102. Trusting and Hop­ing
103. Trusting Je­sus
104. ’Twill Not Be Long
105. Vision
106. We All Can Do Some­thing for Je­sus
107. We Praise Thee
108. Welcome Hour of Pray­er
109. We’ll Bat­tle to the End
110. We’ll Give Our Hearts to Je­sus
111. What Wilt Thou Have Me to Do?
112. When the Bur­den Bear­er Came
113. Why Do the Ho­ly An­gels Sing?
114. Will Je­sus Find Us Watch­ing?
115. Will You Come to the Cross?