Born: Jan­u­a­ry 2, 1828, Thorn­ton, New Hamp­shire.

Died: No­vem­ber 28, 1904, Cleve­land, Ohio.

Buried: Lake View Cem­e­te­ry, Cleve­land, Ohio.

Pseudonym: R. E. Jer­e­my.

Rankin at­tende­d Mid­dle­bury Coll­ege, Ver­mont, and the An­do­ver The­o­log­i­cal Sem­in­ary. Af­ter or­din­a­tion in 1855, he pas­tored at church­es in New York; St. Al­bans, Ver­mont; Charles­town, Mas­sa­chu­setts; at the First Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church in Wash­ing­ton, DC, for 15 years; and at the Val­ley Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church, Orange, New Jer­sey. In 1889, he be­came pres­i­dent of How­ard Un­i­vers­i­ty. His works in­clude:

Sources

Lyrics

  1. Drifting Away from Je­sus
  2. Far Up the Heights of Glo­ry
  3. God Be the Na­tion’s Guide
  4. God Be with You till We Meet Again
  5. Heralds of Je­sus
  6. Keep Your Col­ors Fly­ing
  7. Laboring and Hea­vy La­den
  8. More Than Con­quer­ors
  9. O Prodigal, Don’t Stay Away
  10. Out of Zi­on May God Bless Thee
  11. Rest, Rest, Rest, Bro­ther, Rest
  12. Soldier of Christ
  13. Sweet! Sweet! Sweet the Swell!
  14. Take a Stand for Je­sus
  15. Tell It to Je­sus
  16. Watch Between My Soul and Thee
  17. Who’ll Take the Ranks?