She was not one to merely read a bible story and lay aside its example. No, Fanny Crosby (more formally known as Frances Jane van Alstyne Crosby) certainly lived where she thought the Spirit was leading her to go, including to a prison in Manhattan in 1868 (see an 1870 sketch of it here). And so, when a prisoner called out to the 48-year-old Fanny in desperation that the Lord not forget them in ‘The Tombs’, as that place of incarceration was known, the words resonated with her spirit. She’d heard these similar words earlier in a much more peaceful atmosphere, but it took a potent and pungent place like that prison to imprint “Pass Me Not” on Fanny’s consciousness. Do you think Fanny was also thinking about an episode when Jesus was teaching about visiting inmates (Matthew 25:31-46), and wondering what it would be like one day to stand before a judge herself?
Fanny Crosby was already a very talented poetess and songwriting phenom by the 1860s, when she decided to invest the last half of her life in domestic missionary work. Her reputation was accentuated by her blindness, a condition that nevertheless did not inhibit her work among the poverty-stricken residents of Manhattan. She’d just begun to collaborate with a musical tune writer, Howard Doane, who apparently first suggested the few words ‘pass me not, o gentle savior’ to Fanny, hoping she would quickly consummate a poem appropriate for a hymn. It took one of Fanny’s routine visits to ‘The Tombs’ many weeks later for the rest of the words to emerge, however. Who was the prisoner that cried out to Fanny that day? Perhaps it was the exclamations of multiple prisoners or just their profound desolation that stuck with her that day, prompting her to write four verses shortly thereafter. Their ‘pleading wails’ could not be ignored by Fanny, though most of these men probably had felt forgotten and neglected by the broader culture. The resulting hymn crafted by Doane two years later was reportedly the first Crosby-Doane effort, but certainly not the last, as many years and some 1,500 hymns later would abundantly testify. Perhaps Crosby and the inmates at the New York Halls of Justice sang “Pass Me Not” on many a subsequent occasion, or read Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25, in order to reassure these dregs of society that someone, even God speaking through a blind poetess named Fanny, did not think their bleak situation was hopeless. Someone still cared.
How many times might God have destroyed this creation in His image, but for his patience and care? Noah, Moses, and all the people during the period of the Judges certainly encountered His great anger, the wrath of a Holy Creator determined to punish a disobedient group of malcontents. And so, prisons that are full of criminals still today are not so much of a novelty. And, how often has one said ‘there but for the grace of God…’ when reflecting upon the circumstances of a convict? And yet, God doesn’t give up on us, even the ones of us that misbehave and receive the label ‘condemned’ by a court. Fanny took to heart what she had learned, applied the lesson in a prison visit, and let others ‘see’ what she could really only hear, through a poem. Humility, mercy, relief, contrition, brokenness, and comfort – these were the words (contained in her poem) that she thought a bunch of prisoners needed in 1868. Just them, or me too?
See more information on the song story in this 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.
Also see this link, showing all four original verses and the brief recounting of the song story: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/p/a/s/s/passment.htm
Also see this link for author’s biography, in which the inspiration for the song’s development is also told: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby
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