Will Jesus Find Us Watching? -- Fanny Crosby

 

Does she even remember where she was or what made her think of these words? Certainly, she wasn’t thinking of a physical observation of God (such as with binoculars, like those used by the US Navy signalman in this photo), since she herself would have been incapable of such an act, given her blindness. Perhaps one of Fanny Crosby’s close musical acquaintances might have coaxed the background of “Will Jesus Find Us Watching?” from her memory when it was sung for the first time. Maybe some worshippers on a distant shore might have recalled that first time, because Fanny’s hymns were not confined to use in her native United States. Was there a bible story that Fanny was reading that helped spur the poetry she composed? We’ll have to quiz this hymnwriter in the Afterwhile about the song’s circumstances, because that is where she might be able to tell us, with a glorified body and mind – courtesy of God! Will the story even matter by that time, because what Fanny wrote about in a future sense will have been realized.

 

Frances Jane Crosby (later van Alstyne) wrote thousands of hymns between the mid-19^th Century and the early 20^th Century, so it would be virtually impossible for her to tell us exactly what compelled each one attributed to her. She would probably remember that she lived in one of the rough, rundown neighborhoods of New York City in 1876 (the year ‘Will Jesus Find…’ was first published) when she was in her mid-50s. That was her choice, so that she could do the personal mission work to the urban poor by living among them. She would also be able to tell us that Howard Doane had a hand in ‘Will Jesus Find Us Watching?’, as he did with some 1,500 of Crosby’s hymns, as the musical tune-maker. Maybe the well-known evangelist and Crosby friend Ira Sankey could recall how the song’s emergence transpired, or if it was first sung by a British crowd to whom he often preached the message. It is listed among sixty of Fanny’s hymns that are still the most popular in British Christendom, according to one source (hymnary.org). It seems to be a virtual certainty that Fanny was referencing a parable that Jesus taught (Matthew 25) about ten young women awaiting a bridegroom, including the wise ones who had ‘lamps…trimmed and bright’ (v.1). Fanny must have used many scores of well-known bible episodes to adorn her own poetry, and give her words more potency for the believers who would sing them.  So, Fanny used some well-honed methods, and perhaps some that we don’t yet know, when she constructed ‘Will Jesus Find…’. Being God’s servant among the poor, having access to talented friends like William Doane and Ira Sankey, and reading her own bible to keep in touch with God communicating to her inner spirit daily – these were just a few of the key modes of operation that Fanny employed.

 

So, Fanny asks a question, one that she must have been first trying out on herself.  Despite her physical encumbrance, Fanny found other ways of watching. One would imagine that Crosby must have had a bible in braille, so that by touch, she could sense what His word spoke to her every day. If she didn’t, one or more seeing friends could have helped her get a dose of bible inspiration, a transaction that would have been richer because she shared it with another person. Arguably, helping the poverty-stricken might have been Fanny’s most watchful moments. But whether she was reading a bible or helping minister to the poor, Fanny did not let those moments vanish into oblivion. Her poetry preserves them, and helps connect us to Him all these years later. Her watching makes one wonder, was she really blind, after all?     

 

 

See here for the song’s verses/refrain: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/w/i/l/l/willjesu.htm

 

See some of author’s biography here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/r/o/s/crosby_fj.htm

 

And much more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby

 

See also here a list of the author’s commonly used hymns in Britain: https://hymnary.org/person/Crosby_Fanny

To the Work -- Fanny Crosby

 

Do you think she might remember if we ask her someday? I plan to ask her if I get to see her in the afterwhile! Fanny Crosby was most likely living in a Manhattan district (see its flag here) in New York City in 1869, and spoke “To the Work” to probably herself and others with whom she collaborated to help the poor of the area. We don’t have testimony from her to confirm this speculation, and perhaps her memory might falter if she were here to consider our probing for the story of this song’s emergence. After all, can someone with something like 8,000+ hymns to her credit be expected to recall the particular details of each song’s development? We can be certain that if we see and talk to her someday, and trusting that she will have a perfect memory – courtesy of a glorified body granted by our God – then we shall discover these and many other minutiae.

 

How many different rescue missions did Fanny Crosby (formally known as Frances Jane Crosby; also as van Alstyne, due to marriage in the mid-1800s for a time) actually support? At least five were on Fanny’s radar – Water Street, Bowery, Cremorne, Howard, and Door of Hope – along with other unnamed missions. She had plenty of energy, wouldn’t you say? And, she didn’t just visit the neighborhoods where these missions operated; she lived among the poor served by them. Perhaps that magnified for Fanny the truth of the poor’s harsh reality – every day is uncertain. Fanny evidently saw there were at least two things she could do to reverse that. Notice how many times in her poem she mentions ‘work’, ‘toil’, or ‘labor’. Twenty-seven times is more than enough to drive home her point: I need to work, and in fact it enriches my life and someone else’s when I do. The multiplicity of missions where Fanny spent time is mirrored in what she wrote – she was hardly ever not working. She, who could not physically see, was evidently so fine-tuned in her other senses, that she knew that ‘…the hungry (needed) fed’, and that they were ‘weary’ (v.2); and that there was ‘a kingdom of darkness and error’ for those who could see (v.3). She was not content with letting people remain so bound. As much as they needed daily sustenance, they needed hope, the other element of herself that she translated to the poor. She ends her last three verses with something that would especially have resonated with those stricken with poverty: something priceless is in fact free! And, this free salvation is forever! Pardon the exclamation marks, but how can one not shout this? Just trust and cling to the cross of the One who suffered, even as you poor have suffered, and even more. This hope of everlasting freedom isn’t a wispy dream. It is certain, and it has been purchased with something divine that cannot be diminished.

 

We’ll have all the time we need someday to appreciate Fanny and other believers, and bask in the wonder of Him and how he made us to sing. It’s rather amazing how much Fanny Crosby wrote and contributed to Christian hymnody, and yet all the while lacking eyesight. ‘Gotta be a God-thing’, someone says. Fanny so loved to work while being a terrestrial, one might wonder what job she will have in Eternity, where there will be no poor or sick. The answer we will discover once we’re there, but it’s safe to assume that adventure will also be a ‘God-thing’. From what Fanny has said herself, just being able to see Him – as she’s said, perhaps the first sight she will ever behold – will be enough. I hope God will let her take part in a few more hymn-writing episodes.

 

 

See all the verses here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/t/o/t/h/tothewor.htm

 

See the author’s biography here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/r/o/s/crosby_fj.htm

 

Also see here: https://hymnary.org/person/Crosby_Fanny

 

And here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby

Safe in the Arms of Jesus -- Fanny J. Crosby

 

Might this one be one of the most personal of her thousands of hymns? Someone might think so, if the story of why Fanny (Frances Jane, often called ‘Aunt Fanny’) Crosby wrote “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” could be presumed as true, straight from the sorrowing heart of this poetess/hymnwriter, who was living in New York (see its seal here) with her husband at the time. It was a loss that no parent should ever have to endure; and, Fanny was as human as anyone else, yet with a light inside her that would not allow her to be despondent. Had this 39-year old suffered through something that continued to gestate for another decade, finally to be ‘born’ as a three-verse empathetic expression that was just waiting for one of her collaborators to spark into existence? ‘Safe …’ was reportedly one of Fanny’s favorites. See if you agree with her, after hearing the story.

 

Among the qualities of Fanny Crosby that are most remembered are the physical challenges of blindness that somehow did not seem to hinder her life of poetry, hymn-writing, and urban missionary work in Manhattan. And yet, an incident that befell Fanny and her husband (Alexander van Alstyne), before Fanny really began writing the bulk of the thousands of hymns attributed to her, may have spurred what she felt deep within herself about the death of children. She and Alexander lost a daughter soon after birth in 1859, a loss about which neither parent spoke much. She talked of this time only decades later, in the last years of her life, and in an offhand way to tell others that she knew what it meant to be a parent, if only for a short time. Those friends closest to her suggested that Fanny’s quick recitation of a poem, when prompted by William Howard Doane in 1868, indicated that she had carried the pain of this child’s sudden demise all this time. It’s said that Doane popped in on Fanny in her Manhattan apartment with just 40 minutes to spare before catching a train, and asked if her ear could discern what words would match the tune he had to give her. True to her reputation, the words almost immediately emerged, apparently after she crouched on her bedroom floor in prayer for a short time. Fanny was reportedly heard at times comforting a grieving mother with the words of the hymn. And why not, for when the words she penned to offer some solace were spoken, who wouldn’t feel consoled? Fanny knew intrinsically that Jesus-God is, above all, compassionate. Most of her words are not ones of sadness, but of hope and succor. ‘Safe’, ‘gentle’, ‘sweetly’, ‘rest’ (v.1), are just some of the words that leapt from the soul of Fanny; bespeaking of the intimate reassurance she felt from His embrace. She did not ignore pain, however, with words like ‘corroding’, ‘temptations’, ‘sin’, ‘blight’, ‘sorrow’, ‘doubts’, ‘fears’ ‘trials, and ‘tears’ (v.2) on her mind; but, these were nevertheless all things that the departed child would need not experience here on earth. Her last thoughts of Jesus in verse 3 note His ‘refuge’ and the ‘trust’ one has in His presence.              

 

What Fanny says hardly needs any other expressions or explanation. She knew what it meant to be a child of God, and must have felt at ease, even in the midst of a personal tragedy, when she pondered being as a child in His arms. I may grow old, but I’m still His child, awaiting His warmth and never-ending security. We’re never too old to find Him, as a child runs toward some outstretched arms. His home can be yours today. Do you feel safe yet?

 

See more information on the song story in these sources:

Then Sings My Soul, by Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003  

This link, showing all three verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/a/f/e/safearms.htm  

Also see this link for author’s biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby

And here also: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/r/o/s/crosby_fj.htm