And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. Ezekiel 34:26
The lyrics to "Showers of Blessing," were written by Daniel Whittle. When the Civil War broke out, Whittle was a teenager working in a bank in Chicago. He enlisted in the Union army, and his mother slipped a New Testament into his pack as he headed off to war. At the battle to take Vicksburg he was wounded, taken prisoner, and had to have his right arm amputated. During his hospital stay he dug out the New Testament his mother had packed and began to read it. Someone saw him reading it and asked him to come pray with a dying man in the next room. Whittle reluctantly, for he himself was not yet a Christian, went to talk to the man. Here is Whittle's account:
I dropped on my knees and held the boy’s hand in mine. In a few broken words I confessed my sins and asked Christ to forgive me. I believed right there that He did forgive me. I then prayed earnestly for the boy. He became quiet and pressed my hand as I prayed and pleaded God’s promises. When I arose from my knees, he was dead. A look of peace had come over his troubled face, and I cannot but believe that God who used him to bring me to the Savior, used me to lead him to trust Christ’s precious blood and find pardon. I hope to meet him in heaven.
By the end of the war, Whittle had been promoted to Major, a title he went by for the rest of his life. After the war Whittle returned to Chicago and became treasurer of the Elgin Watch Company. In 1873, influenced by D. L. Moody, he resigned and became a very successful evangelist. Hymns that he wrote that are still sung today include "I Know Whom I Have Believed," "Moment by Moment," "Why Not Now?" and "The Banner of the Cross."