Stories of America's Faith: Fanny Crosby
Psalm 66 & 67
Stories of America’s Faith: Fanny Crosby
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Rev. Susan Cartmell
The Congregational Church of Needham
During July, we will listen to the stories of different people from American history. Each week I have tried to choose people whose faith made a difference in his or her life. Though the people in this series have different ideas, and different struggles to overcome, each person made a big impact on American history and on the people of their time. Each one of them inspired others through their courage, their leadership and their faith. Discovering these various Americans has been lots of fun. It has put me in touch with people I did not know before. I think there is something timeless about these men and women, so I hope their lives inspire you. Two weeks ago our topic was John Adams – one of the founders and leading architects of this new republic. He served as the second President of the United States, and wrote the Massachusetts Constitution which became the template for all the U.S Constitution and all the state documents as well. Adams conceived of the concept of liberty as we know it and he thought up the idea of balance of power. It is hard to calculate his legacy.
Last week we went from a founding father to a woman slave. Our topic was Sojourner Truth. She found faith was the only thing that helped her to endure the brutal beatings she had as young girl. After New York State granted slaves freedom in 1827, Sojourner Truth went on to become one of the most popular speakers of any race in the 1800’s. Her dignity, wisdom and spiritual power commanded universal respect as she fought for abolition and women’s rights.
Today we will hear the story of one of the most prolific musicians of American history - Fanny Crosby. Born on March 24, 1820 in Putnam County New York, Crosby became one of the most famous women of the 1800’s. Her story is an amazing profile in courage. Her childhood was very difficult but it set the course for her incredible life. When Fanny was 6 weeks old she got a cold that made her eyes enflamed. The regular doctor was not available so a stranger was called in. He recommended putting poultices on the baby’s eyes. The treatment caused her to lose her eyesight. Fanny was blind for the rest of her life. Then, several months later, her father died, but Fanny was raised by her mother and grandmother. They must have been remarkable women. They loved her unconditionally, and taught her to make the most of her life as a blind person. Fanny was a very bright and thoughtful child. She was capable and independent. No one pitied her and she did not pity herself.
The Crosby’s lived in the home of Mrs. Hawley, a devoted Christian who also took an interest in Fanny’s education. Fanny was smart and could memorize easily, so Mrs. Hawley taught the child to memorize the Bible – 4-5 chapters a week. At the end of one year Fanny could reel off all four gospels – Matthew Mark Luke and John by heart, and a large portion of Genesis, Exodus, Proverbs, Song of Solomon and many Psalms. For the rest of her life, all this memorized scripture put Biblical literature at her fingertips.
When Fanny Crosby was 15 her mother read about the Institution for the Blind in New York City. Fanny wanted an education so she enrolled as a student. At first it was hard to leave her mother but Fanny resolved to make any sacrifice to get an education. She would spend 23 years at the Institute – 8 as a student and 15 more as a teacher. At the Institution for the Bind students were taught to read the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress, English history, philosophy and science. They learned to read with raised characters. Fanny had a natural aptitude for music and enjoyed singing class, and learned to play the organ, the piano and the guitar. At the Institution she wrote three volumes of poems, and gained quite a following as a blind poet. She was chosen to be part of a delegation of students who addressed Congress to advocate for education for the blind. She delivered several original poems with such conviction about her faith in God that many people were moved to tears. In the audience was John Quincy Adams, Jefferson Davis, and Hamilton Fish among others. She began to make friends with all the great political and religious leaders of her time. She dined with President Van Buren, knew President William Henry Harrison, President John Tyler and President James Polk. President Cleveland took an interest in her poems and they were friend for decades. She was the first woman to speak in the Senate Chamber. She sent a poem to Henry Clay to comfort him when he lost a son in battle.
This was the era of religious revivals and Fanny attended a tent meeting that changed her life in 1850. She later recalled being filled with a feeling of celestial light while the congregation sang a hymn by Isaac Watts that she felt compelled to go to the altar and give her soul to Christ.
At 38 Fanny Crosby married Alexander Van Alstyne, a blind man and fellow teacher at the Institute. They moved to Brooklyn and Van Alstyne served as an organist as two New York churches. He was kind and supported her. After they were married she started collaborating with him and writing hymns. Her husband would write music and she would set her poems to it. Over the course of her life she wrote over 8000 hymns, perhaps the most prolific hymn writer of all time. She worked on the hymns in her head and then dictated them in their final form. Her mind was agile from all the memorizing she had done, and she could keep up to 12 hymns in her head at one time
She collaborated with some of the finest composers of her time. Her music had a power all its own. She touched people with the faith of her words. Dwight Moody used her hymns at Christian revivals. She worked in New York missions with men struggling with alcoholism or just lost in life. One hot summer night she prayed with an 18 year old man who wanted to turn his life around. She went home to write a hymn – “Rescue the Perishing.”
When she started to write hymns Crosby declared, “I have found my mission. I am the happiest creature in all the land.” Hymnbook editors would only take so many hymns from one author. She took on 200 assumed names in order to keep up with the volume of hymns she produced.
Her all-time personal favorite was “Safe in the Arms of Jesus”. Roman Catholics and Protestants loved the hymn. They sang it in England and all over this country. One minister was taking Fanny Crosby to his home for a visit. When he told the carriage driver that this was the author of “Safe in the Arms of Jesus”, the man took off his hat and wept. At the end of the visit when the minister dropped Crosby at the train, he introduced her to a policeman, “This is Miss Fanny Crosby who wrote ‘Safe in the Arms of Jesus’. Will you see that she gets safely on the train?” The officer assisted her with the greatest care and when she was seated he told her, “We sang that hymn at my little girl’s funeral last week.” Crosby replied – “God bless you and tell your wife that your girl is safe in the arms of Jesus.”
What can we learn from Fanny Crosby?
1. She trusted in God . The irony was that though she could not see things, so she had to learn to trust in many things she could not see. She trusted other people. That started in her home and with her family. But they taught her to trust in God, too. One night when Fanny was 11, her grandmother knelt to pray as was her custom at twilight. The old woman and the young girl knelt side by side. When her grandmother got up Fanny went to the window and through the branches of a giant oak tree she felt the moonlight on her face. She knelt in that radiant place and prayed her most fervent prayer: “Dear Lord, please show me how I can learn like other children.” Somehow a great burden was lifted from her, she wrote later. She was overcome with the feeling that God had heard her prayer and would answer it. Four years later, in 1834 Fanny was outside one day and heard her mother at the gate with rustling paper. She had a circular from the New York Institution for the Blind. She later remembered this as the happiest day of her life. Fanny clapped her hands and said, “Oh thank God. He has answered my prayers just as I knew he would.”
2. She refused to be a victim. That was a decision she made early in life.
At nine years old she wrote a poem that summarized her philosophy – “The Blind Girl.”
O what a happy soul 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;
To weep and sigh because I’m blind
I cannot and I won’t.
The poem brought her national recognition but it also summarized her life’s philosophy. She resolved with all her will to be contented. She refused to feel sorry for herself. Now, she had every reason to be resentful. She was born with eyesight but a quack prescribed poultices that took away her gift of sight. She was robbed, and no one could undo the damage. That loss might have consumed her. But somehow it didn’t. She did not live with regret. She did not look back. She did not waste a minute looking back. But instead she poured all that energy that could have gone to hatred or self-pity into living with hope and looking to the future. I think that is why she inspired so many people.
It is easy to look at our misfortunes and feel sorry for ourselves. Most of us have not suffered like she did, but we have all had some rough breaks in life. We have all suffered from illnesses, trouble we don’t deserve. We have all been the victims of people who were unkind or incompetent. It is easy to let life’s regrets consume you. If you let them, they will take you to a very dark place. Crosby’s fortitude and perseverance lifted her from despair. No small miracle.
Fanny Crosby actually stunned most people because she felt so lucky. All her life she was thankful for everything that happened to her – including becoming blind. She said that she got a better education because she was blind. She learned to develop a great memory because she was blind. She met many U.S. Presidents, members of Congress and governors, and all the notable preachers of the day - all because she was blind. She became a national hero and public figure and her hymns are still sung today because she persevered and would not let her blindness defeat her. Let’s sing another of her hymns with gusto.