One of the statements she made was, “It is not enough to have a song on your lips, You must also have a song in your heart.”īut Fanny Crosby was much more than a hymn writer. Many of those hymns have some interesting stories behind them if you would care to look into them further. Whenever she wrote a hymn, she prayed that God would use it to lead many souls to Himself. Sometimes she would write as many as seven of them in a day. That’s about 8000 songs!” Isn’t that mind-boggling? It’s even more amazing when you realize that she didn’t start writing hymns for publication until she was 44 years old! She said, “I liked to write songs that made people want to ask Jesus into their hearts.” Her hymns were aimed at bringing the message of the Gospel to people who would not listen to preaching. Now visualize a hymn on both sides of every page in those 15 books. How can you grasp the enormity of 8000 hymns? How do you conceptualize 8000 hymns? One writer gives the following illustration: “Take 15 hymnals and stack them up. Historians tell us that Fanny Crosby has written the words to over 8000 hymns in her lifetime, as well as many other secular songs of that time and several books of poetry. Let’s turn our focus away from biographical details and look at how God has used this lady, and the impact she has had on many lives. Her prayers for a formal education were answered when she was accepted as a student at the New York Institute for the Blind, where her poetic abilities were eventually encouraged.
She was going to put that ability and that information to good use very soon. By the time she was twelve, she had memorized the first five books of the Old Testament, all four of the Gospels, Proverbs, and Song of Solomon, as well as many of the Psalms. One of the blessings God gave to her was an amazing memory.
That has been the motto of her life, and she continued to maintain that positive attitude. So weep or sigh because I’m blind, I cannot – nor I won’t! How many blessings I enjoy that other people don’t! I am resolved that in this world contented I will be! Oh, what a happy child I am, although i cannot see! At the age of eight, she composed this short poem: Her cheerful disposition won her many friends. She played with the other kids and was able to do many of the things they did. With their help she memorized whole books of the Bible!įanny never considered herself handicapped. She also read and explained the Bible to her. Eunice would take Fanny for walks and sit with her outside, describing to her in great detail all the things she saw. Her mother had to work as a maid in order to support the family, so Fanny’s grandmother, Eunice, took care of her during the day, and the bond between them became very close. She lost the sight in both eyes at six weeks of age, and her father died that same year. Life didn’t get off to an easy start for Fanny and her family. So I’d like to share some of those findings with you. Now I admire her even more as I see her life and her character more clearly. What picture comes to your mind when you think of that name? Do you see a quiet woman with a solemn look on her face, sitting in a chair and dictating the words to hymns to a staff member at the care facility? If that’s the picture that comes to your mind, you’re looking at the wrong Fanny Crosby! My eyes were opened as I studied about this woman that I admire so much for her songs. Most of us are familiar with the name, Fanny Crosby, the blind hymn-writer who wrote over 8000 hymns.
0 kommentar(er)
