In the last years of his life Bliss put secular music aside for his all-absorbing gospel music.[36]
In 1869 Bliss met Dwight L. Moody,[37] who would soon become the center and driving force of evangelism in the United States. Indeed, in the 1930s Herbert W. Schneider described him as "the greatest of all the evangelists," whose "campaigns in the United States, Great Britain, and Ireland between 1857 and 1899 not only influenced millions but also raised revivalistic methods to a somewhat higher plane."[38] In 1870 Bliss met Whittle, with whom he developed a lasting friendship. At first there was simply a period of close association, but after appeals from Moody and encouraging meetings in Waukegan, Illinois, in March 1874 they decided to devote themselves completely to the gospel, Whittle preaching it and Bliss singing it.[39] For both men this decision meant a financial sacrifice. Bliss relinquished a financially rewarding career and in the next year or so gave over to benevolences his share of the considerable royalties he earned in collaboration with Ira D. Sankey. The royalties on Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs, which Bliss and Sankey issued in 1875, ran to $60,000 almost immediately, but neither author took a cent for himself.[40] Whittle gave up his position as treasurer of the Elgin Watch Company, in which he was earning the substantial salary of $5,000 a year.[41] A Chicago Tribune writer who liked Whittle's preaching better than that of the learned ministers of the day declared that the evangelist "has a clear ringing voice, and, like all . . . evangelists of the school to which he belongs, he knows how to handle a Bible. . . ."[42]
From Illinois, Bliss and Whittle carried their evangelism to other states in the Middle West, with a penetration of Pennsylvania in 1874, and then of the South. In 1876 they were in Georgia, where they were at special pains to visit Kennesaw Mountain, to which they journeyed "on a beautiful April morning." On top of the mountain they found "part of the framework of the signal station" from which Allatoona had been signaled in 1864. It was a Confederate platform which Union signalmen had first used in July 1864, abandoned, reoccupied, and put to use in October. From the mountain, Bliss and Whittle could see Allatoona and were much inspired. After kneeling in prayer they "sang 'Hold the Fort,' looking out upon the distant . . . [Allatoona], looking up to the clear blue sky, and hoping and almost expecting that Jesus might then appear, so near He seemed to us that April day." Bliss, his friend said, "reckoned it, while he lived, as one of his blessed days, and the memory of it to me . . . will continue to be while life lasts, a transfiguration scene."[43]
