“I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not…I will make darkness light before them.” Isaiah 42:16

Born: March 24, 1820, Putnam County, New York.

Died: February 12, 1915, Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Buried: Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Fanny Crosby was probably the most prolific hymnist in history. Though blinded by an incompetent doctor at six weeks of age, she wrote over 8,000 hymns. About her blindness, she said:

It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.

In her lifetime, Fanny Crosby was one of the best known women in the United States. To this day, the vast majority of American hymnals contain her work.

When Fanny died, her tombstone carried the words, “Aunt Fanny” and “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.” Eliza Hewitt memorialized Fanny’s passing in a poem which was read at her funeral:

Away to the country of sunshine and song,
Our songbird has taken her flight,
And she who has sung in the darkness so long
Now sings in the beautiful light;
The harp-strings here broken are sweetly restrung
To ring in a chorus sublime;
The hymns that on earth she so trustfully sung
Keep tune with eternity’s chime!

What heart can conceive of the rapture she knows
Awakened to glories so bright,
Where radiant splendor unceasingly glows,
Where cometh no shadows of night!
Her ‘life-work is ended,’ and over the tide,
‘Redeemed’ in His presence to stand,
She knows her Redeemer, for her crucified,
‘By the print of the nails in His hand.’

‘Blessed Assurance’—the lamp in her soul
That made earthly midnight as naught!
A ‘New Song’ of joy shall unceasingly roll
To Him who her ransom had bought.
To ‘Rescue the Perishing,’ her greatest delight,
What bliss, in the Homeland, to meet
With those she has told of the Lord’s saving might,
Together, to bow at His feet.

Good-bye, dearest Fanny, goodbye for a while,
You walk in the shadows no more;
Around you, the sunbeams of glory will smile;
The Lamb is the Light of that Shore!
Someday we will meet in the City above;
Together, we’ll look on His face;
Safe, ‘Safe in the Arms’ of the Jesus we love;
Together we’ll sing, ‘Saved by Grace!’

Pseudonyms (see )

Adrienne, Cora

Alstyne, Fannie Jane

Andrews, A. E.

Apple, James

Armstrong, Alice

Atherton, Rose

Bell, Carrie

Bethune, Catherine

Black, James

Black, James L.

Black, James M.

Blair, H. E.

Blair, Henrietta E.

Booth, Florence

Bruce, Charles

Bruce, Robert

Burns, Charles

Carlston, Mary

Carlton, Leah

Church, Fannie

Craddock, Eleanor

Culyer, Lyman G.

Dale, Ella

Dayton, Flora

D. D.

D. D. R.

Eliot, James

Edmonds, Lizzie

Edwards, Lizzie

F. A. N.

F. J. C.

F. J. V. A.

Fannie

Fanny

Forrest, Mrs. Edna

Frances, Carrie

Frances, Grace J.

Frances, Lillian G.

Frances, S. Trevor

Frances, Victoria

Garnet, Jenny

Glen, Jenie

Gould, Frank

Grinley, Mrs. Kate

G. W. W.

Harmon, Ruth

Hawthorn, Carrie

Hope, Frances

Hops, Frances

James, Annie

James, Mary

James, Sarah

J. F. O.

J. W. W.

Judson, Myra

Lankton, Martha J.

Lincoln, H. N.

Lindsay, W. Robert

L. L. A.

Lowry, Minnie B.

Marion, Maude

Martin, S

Martin, Sallie

Martin, Sam

Miller, Laura

Montieth, A

Montieth, Alice

Park, Edna L.

Prentice, Mrs. L.C.

Smiling, Mrs. Kate

Smith, Sallie A.

Smith, Sallie E.

Smith, Sally

Smith, Sam

Sterling, J. L.

Sterling, Julia

Sterling, Rian J.

Sterling, Ryan

Sterling, Victoria

Stewart, Victoria

Taylor, Ida Scott

The Children’s Friend

Tilden, Louise W.

Tilden, Mary

V., Jenny

Van A., Mrs.

Van Alstyne, Fannie

Van Alstyne, Fannie Jane

Van Alstyne, Mrs.

Van Alstyne, Mrs. Alexander

Viola

Wallace, Zemira

Wilson, Carrie

Wilson, Mrs. C. M.

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Sources

Hymns