“Rescue
the Perishing” was a line that stuck in her head one summer night in 1869, and
Fanny Crosby just couldn’t ignore it. How could this 49-year-old blind woman
rescue anyone? Wasn’t she herself at risk, visiting a rundown neighborhood
inhabited by desperate men? This Bowery area of the Manhattan borough (see a
look at it in 1910 shown here) was not for the timid, who might encounter the
“Bowery Boys” street gang or other reminders of urban blight. Not a wonder that
its residents might turn to alcohol as a means of escape, and find themselves
needing help as life slid into one of the many gutters there. Maybe this is
where Fanny had an advantage. Since one of her senses, eyesight, did not
function, she could not shrink from people with the same revulsion that sight
might have compelled. Thankfully, she did not ignore her other senses,
including her heart.
Crosby’s
life and work especially among missions in New York City are well-known, but
never grow old. This 1869 episode took place early in her hymn-writing career,
which had only started a few years before, though she had been a notable writer
of secular works for some time already. It could be said that the hymn’s poem
had gestated in her spirit because of the work in which she was engaged that
day, and also was spurred by a musical friend’s idea. Her friend Howard Doane
had proposed the ‘Rescue the Perishing’ theme to her a few days beforehand, and
it was still stirring within her as she spoke to a crowd that evening at the
mission. Her urgent appeal struck a chord with one 18-year-old, whom she
implored needed God if he ever expected to join his mother in eternity. This
was a defining moment in these two lives, apparently, as he accepted her
leading and God’s place in his life. The young man reportedly encountered
Crosby decades later to tell of his faithful service for God. For her part,
Crosby went home that evening following their initial encounter and wrote the
lyrics for “Rescue…”, a hymn that still survives one hundred years after her
own death in 1915. And, the Bowery Mission still goes on too, with this story –
and probably many more – that relate how the blind woman helped others to see.
How many people did Frances Jane Crosby show the way, and still does through
her poetry?
Urban, suburban,
rural, and especially the third-world…how would Fanny Crosby have regarded
residents of these areas today? There’s still poor in every one of them, though
an economist might claim the world has come a long way in the last 150 years
since Fanny thought about rescue. She’d be somewhere helping, and teaching, and
making music too, no doubt. There’s still lots of people in trouble, and plenty
who try to help others in ways that remind us of her. Fanny was special because
she merged her gift - her musical ear- with a mission for the destitute. She
was genuine, with hymns flowing from a reality she experienced. Hers were not
just ideas, but authentic life. Maybe that’s why her hymns still reach us. What
might yours or my life have to say?
See more
information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of
Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J.
Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing
Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck,
Kregel Publications, 1990; 101 Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck,
Kregel Publications, 1982; and Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s
Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.
See this
site that describes the ministries of the mission where the composer had the
experience that birthed this song: http://www.bowery.org/
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