In Times of Trouble -Thankfulness - Fanny Crosby

                 In Times of Trouble - Fanny Crosby

"Though sometimes He leads thru waters deep
Trials fall across the way
Tho sometimes the path seems rough and steep
See His footprints all the way!" 

From He Keeps Me Singing



"For I know whate'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well"

"Though my weary steps may falter, and my soul athirst may be
Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! A spring of joy I see"

"When my spirit, cloth'd immortal, wings its flight to realms of day
This is my song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way."

From All the Way My Savior Leads Me



I can't sing or pray this hymn without thinking about the author -- Fanny Crosby--and thanking God for His work through her! Just thinking about her, blind since a child, and living to be 95 years old! and her utter dependence on Him who "led her all way" brings tears of joy. 

She wrote over seven thousand hymns. Most people's favorite, is, I guess, Blessed Assurance.

Blessed assurance -- Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine (and that's what it is -- a foretaste, guarantee, a deposit--of glory later)

And I love this phrase, "Echoes of mercy, whispers of love."

"This is my story, this is my song: Praising my Savior all the day long!"

Apparently one day she was visiting a friend, Mrs. Joseph Knapp, whose husband was one of the founders of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Mrs. Knapp was playing their new pipe organ, which was said to be the largest pipe organ ever placed in a private dwelling. 

She called Fanny over and asked her to listen to a new melody she was composing. She played it over several times and then asked Fanny, "What do you think the tune says?"


In just a few moments Fanny cried out enthusiastically, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!"

And the hymn was born. That was 1873 and has become a victorious rallying call for millions of people, who, with that blind poetess, praise God for loving and redeeming us -- for giving us His blessed assurance!


P.S. I also found out that Fanny, when 12 years old, enrolled in the New York City of the School for the Blind. Years later she taught there, and became a good friend of the secretary of the Board, Grover Cleveland! Fanny had, it appears, a number of friends in high places.