by Anne Adams

When Fanny Crosby wrote “Perfect submission, perfect delight; visions of rapture now burst on my sight!” in her 1873 hymn “Blessed Assurance,” she described something physically impossible for her. She could not see the “visions of rapture” because she had been blind since infancy. Yet she never allowed this disability to hamper her work, and as the author of thousands of hymns, Fanny Crosby became one of the most celebrated and beloved Christian figures of her era.

Born in March 1820 in New York State, Frances Jane Crosby had normal vision at birth but at age six weeks suffered an eye inflammation. An unqualified practitioner applied a hot poultice to her eyes, leaving them scarred. Once it was obvious that the treatment had left Fanny blind, the quack hurriedly left town.

When Fanny’s mother left home to find work, Grandmother Eunice assumed her care. As she sought to make Fanny aware of the world around her, she encouraged the child to be as active and independent as she could. Eunice also helped Fanny memorize long portions of the Bible, as well as other books.

A Blessing in Blindness

As she grew older, Fanny came to believe that, despite her disability, God had work for her to do. Demonstrating a growing talent for poetry, at age 8 she composed a life-defining verse:

Oh, what a happy child I am
Although I cannot see!
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be!
How many blessings I enjoy
That other people don’t
So weep or sigh because I’m blind,
I cannot—nor I won’t.

Eager to learn, Fanny soon realized that local schools could not meet her needs, so in March 1835 she enrolled in the New York Institution for the Blind. There she quickly mastered her studies of English grammar, science, music, history, philosophy, and other subjects. She and her fellow students learned by listening to repeated lectures and answering in depth questions. People were often amazed at Fanny’s extraordinary memory, but she believed that everyone, with persistence, could develop an increasing ability to use their memory.

Fanny participated in many of the New York Institution’s fund raising programs, playing the piano, harp, and organ. She also entertained with her “poetic addresses.” She was often asked to write special poems to honor important visitors or special events, and she soon became something of a celebrity. After completing her education at the Institution, Fanny joined the teaching staff.

In 1851 Fanny began to write lyrics for melodies created by various composers. In 1858 she married fellow teacher Alexander Van Alstine. A year later she had a baby who died soon after birth. Fanny rarely mentioned the tragedy. A few years later she and her husband left the Institution, and soon Fanny found work writing words to the newly popular “gospel” hymns.

Collaboration

Fanny worked with several composers, but a favorite was William Doane, who was a wealthy manufacturer as well as a musician and hymnal publisher. Their first collaboration came one day in 1867 when he lacked the words to go with a particular new melody he had written. After praying for a solution, he received a letter. “I have never met you,” the letter read, “but I feel impelled to send you this hymn. May God bless it.” The letter was signed “Fanny Crosby,” and the enclosed verses matched perfectly the melody he had written. It was the beginning of a long creative relationship.

Fanny’s inspirations for hymn lyrics often came through personal experience. Once in 1868, Doane asked her to write verses incorporating the words “Pass me not, O Gentle Savior.” She was speaking at a prison when she received her inspiration. During one service a man desperately pleaded, “Good Lord! Do not pass me by!” This was her inspiration and the result became a great favorite:

Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry,
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.

Pairing Doane’s melody and Fanny’s lyrics, the new hymn brought numerous conversions. Another time Doane arrived at Fanny’s home saying he had to catch a train in forty minutes. He had a melody for which he needed lyrics before he left her house. As he hummed the melody, she clapped her hands together and exclaimed, “Why, that says ‘Safe in the arms of Jesus’!” She prayed for inspiration and then dictated the completed hymn in just half an hour. The resulting hymn was immediately popular and became one of her best-loved hymns:

Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast,
Here by His love o’er shaded,
Sweetly my soul doth rest.
Hark! ’tis the voice of angels,
Borne in a song to me,
Over the fields of glory,
Over the jasper sea.
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast,
Here by His love o’er shaded,
Sweetly my soul doth rest.

The hymn was of special comfort to mothers who, along with Fanny, had lost children.

Now or Never

Another time Fanny addressed a group of Cincinnati workers, and as she completed her remarks she felt that there was in the audience “some mother’s boy who must be rescued tonight or not at all.”

“If there is a dear boy here tonight who has perchance wandered away from his mother’s home and his mother’s teaching,” she said to the crowd, “would he please come to me at the close of service?” After the meeting, a young man came up and identified himself. Fanny prayed with him and he exclaimed, “Now I can meet my mother in heaven, for now I have found her God!” Remembering Doane’s request to write a hymn using the words “rescue the perishing,” Fanny completed a new hymn with that young man in mind:

Rescue the perishing,
Care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave,
Weep o’er the erring one,
Lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

Occasionally a personal need provided inspiration. In 1874 Fanny needed rent money. After praying about her need, she received a visitor. The stranger did not stay long, but before he left he put in her hand exactly the amount she needed for rent. That evening the words flowed:

All the way my Savior leads me;
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy
Who through life has been my guide?

When Fanny wrote her most well-known hymns, during the 1860s and 1870s, she contributed lyrics for perhaps half of the hymns published in those years. In all her work, Fanny’s aim was that a hymn be singable and have a fitting combination of words and melody. A hymn was, according to Fanny’s definition, “a song of the heart addressed to God.”

In her final years Fanny Crosby remained active—writing, traveling, and speaking until near her death at age 94. She died in February 1915. Fanny’s contribution to Christian music was remarkable in itself. To accomplish all that she did while blind was evidence of an indomitable heart and spirit. She once asked, “How in the world could I have lived such a helpful life as I have lived had I not been blind?”