Many people
think that Fanny Crosby has written more hymns than any other person. In her
lifetime, she has written over 8,000 hymns. What is more amazing than Fanny
Crosby's achievements is the circumstances under which she accomplished so
much.
Fanny Crosby was born as
Frances Jane Crosby in 1820 in South East, Putnam County, New York. When she
was a small baby, she had a sickness in her eyes. Her family contacted a man
who lied and said he was a doctor, and gave her medicine for her eyes that was
not real medicine. Instead, this medicine caused her to be blind. She was never
able to see after this.
When Fanny was a child, a
lady named Mrs. Hawley took much time to teach Fanny Crosby the Bible. Fanny
began to memorize large portions of the Bible, to the point that she would
memorize between 4-5 chapters a week. After working with Mrs. Hawley for one
year, Fanny could recite a large portion of the books of Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, and Numbers, and all of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. God used this
teaching, and moved in her heart to draw her unto him. When she was 30 years
old, she committed her life to Christ.
Most people would be very
upset to have someone lie and make a mistake that caused them to be blind.
Because of Fanny's love for God, she had a different attitude. She believed
that God had allowed her blindness for her to glorify God. 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."
Fanny married a man named Alexander VanAlstyne, who was also blind. They loved
each other very much, and shared a love for music and a love for God. The
VanAlstynes had one baby, but God allowed this baby to die. While Fanny had
many sad times in her life, yet her attitude was to give God glory. In her
hymn, To God Be the Glory, she said,
"Great things He
has taught us, great things he hath done and great our rejoicing through Jesus
our Son; But purer, and higher, and greater will be Our Wonder, our transport,
when Jesus we see."
While many people think
that Fanny was a great Christian, Fanny would probably be embarrassed by that
title. Fanny Crosby loved God, and was very humble. She used over 200 pen names
during her career. A pen name is a secret name that writers use to hide their
real name. The reason that Fanny used this many names was because she did not
want the fame of writing so many hymns. One of the pen names that Fanny used
was Grace J. Frances. Her goal would be to glorify God with her abilities.
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