A Wonderful Savior -- Fanny Crosby

Francis Jane Crosby was a 70-year old by the time she penned a song, using a method that was tried and true. Could it be that the environment in which she lived also played a part in “A Wonderful Savior”, perhaps more appropriately known as “He Hideth My Soul”? She may have known many people in places where she lived and ministered, among them the Bowery Mission in Manhattan (shown here),

whom she thought were ‘hidden’ in this life, perhaps better protected from the strain of life, and so better tools for Him to mold and use. Fanny Crosby may have even thought that about herself. Maybe that’s why she chose to be where she was in 1890.

Fanny Crosby was a multitalented figure by the time she reached the septuagenarian ranks, and she seemingly had no intentions of slowing down from what had spurred her onward to that point. The fact that she had begun writing hymns only at mid-life makes all the more astounding the prolific nature of her output – some 8,000-9,000 hymns. You might say these were messages that just burst forth from her spirit, after gestating for a lengthy time, nurtured by her life’s path. She had been involved with mission work for many years, but had apparently strengthened this commitment some 10 years prior to “A Wonderful Savior”, especially in her native area of New York. She lived among the poor and spoke publicly on many occasions to lift the people who needed hear her life’s example. But, you can tell from the verses she penned that it wasn’t her own life she offered as the solution to these needy people, but indeed God’s. And so, it was not a surprise when one of her musical collaborators, William Kirkpatrick, visited her with a brand new tune in his pocket, expecting Fanny to provide the words very quickly. She didn’t disappoint. Or, perhaps she would say God doesn’t disappoint. The words she employed about a ‘cleft in the rock’ imply that Fanny was consuming the Exodus story (the end of chapter 33), in which Moses was safeguarded by Him in this special place in a personal encounter. It didn’t matter that it was a barren place, as long as His presence was evident. And so, in a similar way, it didn’t matter to William Kirkpatrick that Crosby might have been in a slum, for he knew the Lord was near – indeed, inside—her. Fanny wrote something that would have inspired her neighbors too, a people who probably thought theirs was not a blessed existence.  

Many people might think they are unnoticed deep inside a difficult situation, like a slum. This song’s story is a message for those people – you’re not forgotten, and not without His work among you. Flowers, in fact, can bloom only in dirty soil. By her 70^th year, this fact must have been evident to Fanny too. Choosing to live and work among the needy wasn’t just an act of charity—though the crucial factor—for Fanny Crosby. Perhaps she had realized that’s really where He’s is, where she could be the channel for Him, overlooking a ‘dry, thirsty land’. Moses was protected in that spot, though in close proximity to His  presence that might have otherwise killed him. Where’s that cleft rock today for you and me?  

Information on the song was obtained from the books  Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

See biography on composer here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby

See information on one location where Crosby was frequently in the late 19^th Century: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowery_Mission