Ira Bishop Wilson

Ira Bishop Wilson was an American gospel-song writer, composer, and music editor born in Bedford, Iowa, on September 6, 1880. Hymnological records state that his sister taught him violin and organ and that he studied at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago around 1902. By 1905 he was working for the Lorenz Publishing Company in Dayton, Ohio, where his compositions appeared in The Choir Leader and The Choir Herald and where he later served as editor in chief of The Volunteer Choir.

Wilson was active on both the literary and musical sides of early twentieth-century evangelical song. With Edmund S. Lorenz he edited The King's Message, a 1910 collection for Sunday schools, and Hymnary documents numerous texts and tunes under his name. He also used the pseudonym Fred B. Holton. His text beginning Out in the highways and byways of life is generally dated to 1909 and later became known by its refrain title, Make Me a Blessing.

The precise circumstances in which Wilson wrote the text are not firmly documented by strong contemporary evidence. Later stories claim that he forgot having written it, but those accounts are inconsistent and should not be treated as established fact. What is secure is Wilson's authorship, the 1909 date used by hymnological indexes, and the later pairing with George Stark Schuler's 1924 tune.