Doxologist ContentFanny Crosby
Fanny Crosby (1820-1915) was an American poet and hymn writer who was so prolific over the course of her life that it’s believed she’s written over eight thousand hymns.
When Crosby was just a baby, she became blind due to a botched hot-poultice meant to cure an eye infection. Later in life Crosby was never bitter about her physical inability but instead was quoted as saying “Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition, it would have been that I should be born blind? [The reason is] because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior!”
Shortly after her accident Fanny’s father became ill and died. Fanny’s mother hired a maid and her Grandmother Eunice taught Fanny to pray and read bible stories to her.
The Crosby family’s landlady-Mrs. Hawley-also played an important role in young Fanny’s life. Mrs. Hawley helped Fanny memorize the Bible, and it’s said that she learned five chapters per week and had entire books committed to memory.
In 1834 Fanny continued her education at the New York Institute for the Blind where she later served as a teacher for twenty-three years. On March 5, 1858, Fanny married a fellow teaching professor and famous New Yorker organist named Alexander van Alystyne.
After she married, Fanny left the Institute and began the vocation of writing hymns. She had an agreement with the publishers Bigelow and Main to write three hymns a week for use in their Sunday school publications. Fanny frequently surpassed her quota by writing up to six to seven hymns a day. Today Fanny’s hymns still enjoy a contemporary popularity including: ” Blessed Assurance,” “To God be the Glory” and “All the Way My Savior Leads Me.”
Fanny was inspired to write “All the Way My Savior Leads Me” after having some money issues which left her unable to pay her rent. As was common, Fanny began to pray and a few minutes later, an unknown man approached her and gave her the exact amount of money that she needed. As both a songwriter and a woman of faith, Fanny Crosby is an example to all that are living in adversity or disability.
It is interesting to me that some of the greatest and richest songs of the faith come out of times of darkness and dispair. Even when you look at how the Psalms are laid out you see the first half being darker then the second. It is almost as if one isn’t able to fully experience praise until they have experienced dispair.
So true, Craig. I think that in our dispair we’re reminded of our desparate need for Christ and He meets us in our pain.