Fanny Crosby : Queen of Hymns

Frances Jane Crosby was born on March 24, 1820 in South East New York. When she was six weeks old, she caught a cold in her eyes. Since the family physician was away, a country doctor who was a quack prescribed hot mustard poultices to be applied to her eyes, which destroyed her sight completely! Fanny never felt any resentment against him, but believed it was permitted by the Lord to fulfill His plan for her life. Her father John was never to be remembered by Fanny for he died in her twelfth month.

Blind for all her life, Fanny Crosby, the greatest hymn-writer in the history of the Christian church, later wrote, “And I shall see Him face to face, and tell the story – Saved by grace.” At the age of eight, she wrote her first recorded poetry: Oh! What a happy soul am I, and published her first poem at the age of eleven. She wrote more than 9000 hymns, some of which are among the most popular in every Christian denomination.

It was her grandmother who took care of her and became an unforgettable influence in her life. She introduced Fanny to the Bible and she began to devour the scriptures and as a child she could memorise many books from the Bible. When she was fifteen years of age, she was sent to a school for the blind where she was to spend the next 23 years of her life, as a student for 12 years and as a teacher for 11 years. During her years in the school she was encouraged to write and poetry began to flow from her heart and mind.

During her lifetime she addressed the Congress and knew all the presidents except George Washington. She married Alexander van Alstine in 1858 who was one of New York’s best organists and he wrote music to many of Crosby’s hymns. For a long period of time she was under contract to submit three hymns a week for a New York Publishing Firm but she wrote six or seven a day and many became incredibly popular. When Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey began to use them in their crusades, they received even more attention. Among them are “Blessed Assurance," “All the way my Saviour leads me,” “To God be the glory,” “Pass me not, O gentle Saviour,” “Safe in the arms of Jesus,” “Rescue the perishing,” and “Jesus keep me near the Cross.” She continued to write her poetry up to her death, a month away of her 95th birthday. ‘Blessed Assurance’ was her most famous hymn, according to a hymn poll taken by the Christian Herald. ‘To God be the glory’ was not really discovered until 1954, when it was introduced to Bev Shea in London. It was first sung by Shea and the Billy Graham Crusade Choir in Toronto in 1955. Since then it had become a beloved hymn of the faith.

Once a preacher commented, “I think it is a great pity that the Master did not give you sight when he showered so many other gifts upon you.” Fanny Crosby responded at once, “Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I was born blind, because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Saviour.”