Rankin at­tende­d Mid­dle­bury Coll­ege, Ver­mont, and 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:

• Gospel Tem­per­ance Hymn­al, 1878
• Gospel Bells, with Otis Pres­brey (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: West­ern Sun­day School Publ­ish­ing Com­pa­ny, 1880)
• German-Eng­lish Lyrics, Sac­red and Se­cu­lar, 1897

• Erickson, p. 375
• Julian, pp. 951-2, 1690

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