Frances Jane (Fanny) Crosby was a prolific author of hymns of which many are still sung in churches today. Perhaps best know for Blessed Assurance, she wrote over 8000 Christian hymns in her long lifetime. Blessed Assurance was set to music by Phoebe Knapp (1839-1908), the daughter of Methodists, who was a close friend to Fanny.
Knapp wrote over 500 hymn tunes and she and Fanny attended the John Street Methodist Church in New York City. Knapp is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, near the great preacher Henry Ward Beecher.
Crosby was born in Southeast, Putnam County, New York, in 1820 and because of negligent medical care lost her sight at the age of six weeks.She attended the New York Institute for the Blind at 15, and later taught history there. She married a fellow blind teacher, Alexander van Alstyne in 1858, and they had a daughter who died in infancy. Van Alstyne died in 1902.
Composer William H. Doane
Among Crosby's huge output may be mentioned I am Thine, O Lord, with music by Dr. William H. Doane( 1832-1915),who set many of Crosby's hymn to music. Doane was a composer and inventor, and wrote 40 books and over 2,000 songs and cantatas. He collaborated with Fanny Crosby on many of her hymns.
All the Way My Saviour Leads Me
One day Fanny Crosby was praying about her need for five dollars when a stranger knocked on her door and gave her the precise amount she needed. She said, I have no way of accounting for this, except to believe that God put it into the heart of this good man to bring the money. My first thought was that it is so wonderful the way the Lord leads me, I immediately wrote the poem, and Dr. Lowry set it to music. (Amazing Grace, by Kenneth W.Osbeck, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Page 259). Dr. Lowry was Robert Lowry, 1826-1899,
Rescue the Perishing
Written in 1869, after an experience at the New York Bowery Mission, the hymn was set to music by Dr. William Doane, who had earlier sent Fanny a new tune to be set to the words, Rescue the Perishing. This was another coincidental event that happened often in her faith-filled life.
I Am Thine, O Lord
This hymn was written while Fannie was visiting Dr. Doane's family at Cincinnati in 1875. She took the subject of the family's conversation ...the closeness of God...and wrote the words that evening. Doane set it to music and it became one of Christendom's greatest hymns.
For a blind woman to write over 8,000 hymns is a miracle in itself. That they have lasted for over a century is a confirmation of her faith.
Source
Amazing Grace by Kenneth W.Osbeck Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan
General knowledge
 |
 |
