Rescue the Perishing, and Pass Me Not, O Gentile Savior – Bob Walters

Hymns of Fanny Crosby (1820 – 1915) & William Doane (1832 – 1915)

As a young girl, Fanny Crosby loved poetry. She memorized the hymns of King David, and they would be a source of light and strength for all her days. It seems that David’s hymn, that we call Psalms 37, was a living code for Fanny. “Trust in the Lord and do good, Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart, Commit your ways to the Lord and He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” At the tender age of 5 Fanny fell in love with horses and was certain they must be God’s most magnificent creation! She and her friend Peter would find the neighbors horses when they had strayed, mount them and ride them back to their stables. They weren’t supposed to do that and one day the horses’ owner, Mrs. Shaw, was standing in the stall as Fanny slide off the side of her favorite horse, Beauty. The repetitious scolding began,” Ms. Francis Jane Crosby! Little blind girls cannot ride horses!” Ironically, Fanny had just proven to Mrs. Shaw that little blind girls could ride horses and for the rest of her life she would prove to the world that little blind girls could do just about anything they set their minds to.

Fanny’s father died when she was one, so she was raised by her mother and grandmother. Her mother had difficulty getting past the realization that her daughter would be blind for life, which happened at 6 weeks old, when a visiting pyhsician applied mustard poultice to her swollen eyes as treatment for fever. Fanny’s grandmother, Eunice, declared that she would then be Fanny’s eyes! She taught her everything she could of God’s colorful world. Her descriptive words would remain with Fanny through her lifetime of writing  poems and songs, composing music, speaking before multitudes and were even with her as she went into the depths of inner city rescue missions, children’s homes, railroad yards and prisons where she ministered to the lost, the sick and the dying.

When Fanny was 8, she wrote her first poem:

Oh what a happy soul am I

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!

To weep and sigh because I’m blind

I cannot nor I won’t!

One can sense from her early writings and stories, young Fanny was somewhat high spirited and often prone to mischief. But, most importantly, she was determined to not allow her disability to define her. She had a deep desire to learn as other children did, however, she could not grasp writing, math or braille and teachers did not have the time to spend with her. When Fanny’s mother took a job as a housekeeper and cook in a neighboring town, the woman of the house, Mrs. Hawley, saw great potential in Fanny for learning and appointed herself as Fanny’s personal tutor. She taught her how to memorize scripture, sometimes as much as 5 chapters a week. by the end of the 1st year, Fanny had memorized the first 5 books of the Bible and most of Psalms. At the end of the second year, she had memorized the rest of Psalms, Song of Solomon, Proverbs and the 4 Gospels. With this much of God’s Word in her mind and heart it served to catapult her forward into the many remarkable events of her life.

Fanny prayed over and over for God to show her how she could learn like other children. At the age of 14, God answered her prayers and she was accepted into the New York Institute for the blind. She said it was the happiest day of her life! As hard as it was to leave her mother for the 1st time, she knew it was something she must do. Along with her learning she created poetry constantly. At one point the staff ordered her to stop thinking of or reciting any poetry and just focus only on her schoolwork for 3 months. Fanny agreed and applied herself accordingly. As a result, her grades fell, she lost weight, her appetite, and interest in school. After only 6 weeks the staff called off the experiment. Shortly afterwards a famed Phrenologist from Boston visited the school and as he studied Fanny’s cranium he proclaimed, “Here is a poetess! Don’t hold her back. Read to her the finest poetry and the best books. You will be hearing from her!” From that point on Fanny flourished in accomplishments! She learned to play the guitar, piano, organ and harp, became an accomplished soprano and continually wrote poetry about God, people she met, her teachers, visiting speakers, presidents and generals, war and peace, religious, patriotic and secular poems, songs, prayers and stories. She attended the school for 8 years and then was hired on as an English and history teacher for another 11 years.

She taught until marrying her former student, Van Alstyne, a talented organist. They had a baby and although both parents were blind, the baby seemed to have good eyesight and fine health. Tragically, the baby died of SIDS. It was a heavy loss that both Fanny and Van would carry with them for life.

At age 31, while at a revival service singing the Isaac Watts hymn, “At The Cross,” Fanny completely gave herself to God and she said in her autobiography, “Sunlight flooded my soul like never before and the darkness shriveled and was gone! This was now the happiest day of my life! I sprang from my knees with arms raised shouting, Hallelujah!” From this moment on Fanny wrote hymn after hymn. Over 8,000 in total. some accounts say over 9,000. Some are believed to still be locked away in vaults awaiting a melody, which was common practice in the 1800’s. William Bradbury’s publishing company alone purchased 5,200 of Fanny’s hymns. She would receive the going rate for a woman hymn writer of 1 or 2 dollars for each hymn. By today’s equivalent, $24. – $48. William Doane paid Fanny $20., todays equivalent of $460., for the 1st hymn he purchased from her. She did not want to accept it, but he insisted. Fanny and her husband agreed that whatever money they made from selling hymns or giving music lessons, they would purchase their necessities and give the rest away to rescue missions, childrens’ homes, the YMCA and churches. Fanny would live the rest of her life in the New York City slums.

Fanny’s system for writing hymns was to write 12 hymns, rotating them in her mind until she had them perfected, then dictate them to a friend. Quite often she wrote 7 to 14 hymns a week. On one occasion a publisher ordered 40 hymns from her. She wrote all 40 hymns in her mind before dictating them. The publishers and composers were given the rights to the songs so when Fanny wrote her 2 autobiography’s she had to ask permission to print her own lyrics in the books. She would always keep a hymn held back as an emergency and to recite to herself when she was troubled, sometimes not sharing it for years.

Fanny Crosby was clearly a person people wanted to meet. She spoke before congress twice, becoming the 1st woman to speak before the joint bodies. She met 21 presidents and became friends with a number of them. Some before they served, some after, and some while in office. Fanny spoke with every president from John Quincy Adams to Woodrow Wilson. She joined with fellow composers in writing 8 cantatas becoming the 1st woman to write a cantata. Fanny used 200 pen names as publishing companies would only print so many hymns from a single writer or composer. She was considered a lay preacher and was often asked to speak in churches and rescue missions that would allow women to speak the Word of God in public. Fanny carried a small book she referred to as her “little book of words” and as long as she had it in her hands when she spoke before crowds, her words would flow smoothly. Her practice was to hold this book in her hands while writing hymns as well. She became friends with many of her contemporary composers, singers and evangelists and often would be asked to come up and say something at revivals and crusades if she was recognized in the crowd. Being timid to speak in front of people, she would purposely try to sit at the back or to the side at gatherings in hopes no one would recognize her. However, at her time of conversion, she promised God that if he wanted to use her as a pipe to bring the light of God’s love to people who needed to hear it, then she would be available.

  Of all that Fanny was able to do in her life, she wanted to be remembered most of all as an inner-city mission worker. She wrote the Hymn, “Pass Me Not Oh Gentle Savior” while helping with a service at a men’s prison. She said she was feeling the heaviness of the spiritual warfare as the men were walking in, chains rattling, when a man shouted out, “Lord! Please don’t pass my by!” The hymn was written in her mind before she left the prison and it became one of the most popular hymns to be used during revivals and altar calls. One night when Fanny was speaking to men at a mission, she had a mental block, which had never happened before. Suddenly, the Spirit led her to invite a young man who had turned away from his mother’s teaching and turned his back on God to come see her after the service. Then her message came back to her and she finished the service. Afterwards a man came to her and said, “I am that young man you spoke of.” He then gave his life to Christ and Fanny wrote the hymn, “Rescue The Perishing” which became a theme song for rescue mission work. Fanny’s goal and lifelong prayer was that God would save 1 million people through her hymns. She kept every letter sent to her from Europe and America of stories of people being saved through her hymns and of those who were moved to make better choices in life and accounts of those who were comforted in times of trouble by the singing of one of her songs and others who requested one of her songs be sung to them while on their death bed. Many of them, children.

 On Fanny’s 90th birthday, churches around the world celebrated it as “Fanny Crosby Day”. When she was 91, she spoke before 5000 people at Carnegie Hall after they sang her songs for 30 mins. Fanny said, “It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life and I thank him for that dispensation. If perfect eyesight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God had I been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things around me. I certainly would not have enjoyed such good memory and now the first face I will ever see will be the face of my Savior!”

William Doane, who composed the music for both of the hymns mentioned above, composed music for at least 2000 hymns. He also put together numerous Sunday school hymnals and teaching materials. He was a manufacturer and inventor with 70 patents to his name of woodworking machinery. His wife’s name was also Fanny and William died 1 month after Fanny Crosby.

Interesting facts:

Fanny’s mother’s maiden name was also Crosby. Mercy Crosby. Fanny traced both sides back to the 1600’s where she found they had married into the Mayflower families that arrived in 1620 so Fanny was accepted into the society, “The Daughters of The Mayflower.” Bing Crosby and his brother, Bob, the band leader, were descendants of Fanny Crosby’s family.

A few hymn stories:

One evening Fanny’s good friend, Phoebe Knapp, had her over for supper and then said, “Fanny, listen to this new tune I wrote. What is it saying to you?” Fanny listened as Phoebe began to play it on the piano and then proclaimed, “It is saying, Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh what a foretaste of glory divine!” Fanny said they finished the hymn that night.

William Doane stopped by one day and said, ” Fanny, I have to be on the train in 40 mins. I’m speaking at a Sunday School conference in Cincinnati. I composed this new song to sing to them but can’t get any words to fit. Can you help me?” Fanny listened to the song once through while she heated some water. She told Mr. Doane to have some tea while she went into her bedroom. She would always pray for God to give her the right words to match a tune. That day she first prayed for Mr. Doane’s safety, “Dear Lord, I know Mr. Doane is safe in the arms of Jesus, but please protect hymn as he travels. When I got up I said, That’s it! Safe In The Arms of Jesus! I had the hymn written in 20 mins. and Mr. Doane made his train on time!” Fanny received many letters through the years from parents who lost children and found this hymn a great comfort to them.

From a young child’s prayer one evening, “Jesus, thank you for being punished instead of me” came the inspiration for the hymn,”Instead of Me.”

A Boston harbor pilot who was dying, shouted out, “I see the light!” When his family asked, “What light is it? The city lights? The harbor lights?” The pilot answered, ” I see the light of glory! Let the anchor go!” The hymn, “I See The Light” was born.

Fanny listened to every sermon she could at various churches and gatherings receiving much inspiration from them for her hymns.

Fanny wrote this: “The most enduring hymns are born in the silence of the soul, and nothing must be allowed to intrude while they are being framed into language. Some of the sweetest melodies of the heart never see the light of the printed page. Sometimes the song without words has a deeper meaning than the more elaborate combinations of words and music. But in the majority of instances these two must be joined in marriage. Thus, melodies tell their own tale and it is the purpose of the poet to interpret this musical story into language.”

When William Bradbury was dying, he told Fanny to carry on his work. “You must continue writing hymns. Remember, there is always another lost soul waiting to hear your next song!”… Isn’t that still the reason we keep singing and keep writing and composing new songs today? It is not our place to determine who will be moved to a deeper relationship with God through the hearing of our songs. Nor do we know who needs to hear a particular song at an exact moment in their life. That is the job of God through the Holy Spirit.  But we do know, without a doubt, there will always be one more soul, hurting, seeking or lost, waiting to hear our next song! May our prayer to God be as Fanny’s, “Lord, use me as a pipe to take the light of your love to lost and hurting souls.” 

Categories: Bob Walters Hymns of the Faith

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