Jesus: Our Assurance

Fanny Crosby

Frances Havergal

Sermon by John Turner

July 26, 2009

Ephesians 1:3-14 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Paul’s Message

Here is the message that Paul delivers in the opening section of his letter to the Ephesians: (1) we are chosen by God the Father to be his beloved children, ultimately holy and blameless; (2) we are redeemed by the sacrificial love of God the Son, Jesus Christ, for a life abiding in him; (3) we are sealed, assured, and equipped for our present mission and for our eternal destiny by God the Holy Spirit; (4) our mission is to live as representatives of Jesus Christ in such a way that we may invite people into union with Christ and with one another, thus living for the praise of the glory of God. In short, we are to be a doxology, a living word of praise, to the divine Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, completely given over to God’s glory.

Two Women Named Frances

Today, we will see these themes in the lives and hymns of two women in the latter half of the 19th century, both named Frances: Frances Jane “Fanny” Crosby Van Alstyne in America and Frances Ridley Havergal in Great Britain (note that the previous week’s sermon also included Cecil Frances Alexander, basically contemporary with these two). These two women were the leading hymn-writers of their time. They had in common strong faith in the promises of God, the atoning work of Jesus Christ, the assuring and transforming work of the Holy Spirit, and the fact that real Christians surrender themselves to the Lord and dedicate themselves fully to his service. They were living doxologies, completely given over to God’s glory. They also had in common a delight in a good creation and especially of animal life, a lively sense of humor, a spirit of daring adventure, a courageous facing of physical handicaps, and an appreciation for good literature and good music. They were admirable and influential on many levels.

Fanny Crosby

Fanny Crosby lived approximately 95 years, from 1820 to 1915. At six weeks of age, she had an inflammation of her eyes that was so badly treated by an incompetent physician that she lost her sight. Her father died during her first year of life. In that time, the prospects of a meaningful life were not great for a blind girl, raised by a single mother. But Fanny Crosby was not an ordinary child. From her beginning in rural New York and Connecticut, she was bold, assertive, gregarious, mischievous, and adventurous, always up for children’s games and pranks. Adults spent long hours with her, reading to her, helping her memorize the Bible, great literature, and music. She was 15 years old when she began her formal education at the New York Institute for the Blind. She spent the next 23 years of her life there, first as a student and then as a teacher. Since Fanny was skilled in creating and reciting the sentimental Victorian poetry with which celebrities in those days were greeted at public events, she soon became the public face of the Institute, known to Presidential candidates of both parties and the other celebrities who visited. Her poems were printed in major newspapers and magazines, and her first book of verse was published when she was 24. Some of her verse was set to music, and the two-hankie “Rosalie, the Prairie Flower,” for which she wrote the lyrics, was for a time the most popular secular song in the country. She was famous before she wrote her first hymn. Although Fanny from early on believed the Bible and the Christian gospel, she dates her conversion and assurance of salvation to a series of events that took place when she was about 30 years old. The series of events culminated in her responding to the last verse of Isaac Watts’ hymn, “Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed,” which says, “But drops of grief can ne’er repay the debt of love I owe; here, Lord, I give myself away, ‘tis all that I can do.” She did not consider herself converted until she gave herself away.
In her late thirties, she married Alexander Van Alstyne, her former student and a fellow teacher at the Institute and a church musician. She kept her maiden name for public use. Fanny’s career as a hymn writer began after her marriage.

Major Forces That Were Changing Hymn-Writing

Three major forces were changing hymn-writing: (1) Great revival meetings, such as those led by Dwight Moody, were being organized on an unparalleled level with large professional staffs, including celebrity musicians, such as Ira Sankey. (2) Publishing companies existing for the purpose of making a profit by focusing on selling hymnals and hymn sheet music were coming into being. (3) Popular music was becoming a cultural force and was affecting the tunes to which hymns were being set.

The All-Time Most Prolific Successful Hymn-Writer

Fanny Crosby was an integral part of all three forces. She had wide associations with the leading revivalists and hymn promoters of the day and with musicians who helped her match her poems to tunes with the most popular appeal.
A musician herself, Fanny collaborated with other musicians, sometimes initiated by their tunes, sometimes by her poems, sometimes by a theme for which they created the result together. For instance, her friend Phoebe Knapp, daughter of one of the first modern clergy couples, played a tune for Fanny and asked, “What does that say to you?” to which Fanny replied, “It says. “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine,” and she proceeded to write her most famous hymn in almost no time.
Fanny published many of her hymns under pen names in order to circumvent the tendency of hymnal publishers to put a limit on the number of hymns they used from any one author. Because of the pen names, it is difficult to count her hymns, but it is safe to say that she wrote between 8,000 and 10,000, more than I have heard of from any other author. I would guess that most Protestants past middle age know more hymns by Fanny Crosby than by any other author.

Culturally Current

Fanny was often at the front of revival meetings and urban street mission gatherings playing a piano or organ, singing her compositions, and making appeals for conversions. Even in her old age, Fanny was not above startling an audience by letting a little ragtime or jazz style creep into her playing of an old hymn, and she simply laughed off the criticism she drew, confident that she was catching the ears and warming the hearts of people who might not pay attention to the more classical sounding pieces, which she also loved. She was an extraordinarily effective personal evangelist and was especially compassionate to people with addictive and destructive habits that they needed to overcome. She urged other Christians to be gentle rather than judgmental in bringing people to Christ. Because of her commitment to effective evangelism, she stayed culturally current throughout her life, and would have urged others to do the same.

Fanny’s Attitude Toward Her Blindness

From a small child, Fanny was determined not to let blindness stop her from living a full life. At the age of eight she wrote these verses about her condition: “Oh what a happy soul I am, although I cannot see; I am resolved that in this world contented I will be. How many blessings I enjoy, that other people don't; to weep and sigh because I'm blind, I cannot, and I won't.”

Later in life, Fanny honored in a hymn “Blind Bartimaeus” of the Bible for his boldly seeking healing of his blindness from Jesus But Fanny did not insist that her own healing should come in this life. She wrote: “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.” She saw her healing coming beyond this life, "When I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior!" Nevertheless, in this life, Fanny was probably in much of her adult lifetime, the best known woman in America.

To see a portion of a poem written by Frances Havergal in England and sent to Fanny Crosby in America, see the previous post on this blog.

Frances Havergal

Across the ocean, Frances Ridley Havergal was the leading British hymn-writer of the time. Frances lived less than 43 years, from 1836 to 1879. The daughter and sister of musically-inclined Anglican priests, she showed early brilliance and creativity. Despite frequent bouts with life-threatening illnesses and afflictions, she devoted much energy to her various charitable and missionary endeavors, to editing her father’s hymns, and to writing her own hymns and devotional messages, some of the devotional messages in poetry and some in prose. She was a capable scripture scholar, able to work with the Hebrew and Greek texts. In times of physical health she was known for her lively and active (unable to sit still) disposition. As Fanny Crosby’s blindness focused her, Frances Havergal’s illnesses focused her. The heart of Frances Havergal’s spiritual life and mission was a concentration on total dedication to the Lord and his mission. She claims to have battled with her own lack of consecration from her first religious awareness as a small child. This battle received its basic resolution when she was fourteen, but remained a theme of her spiritual growth for the rest of her life.

Challenging Hymns

The earliest of her hymns in my hymnals was written when she was in her early twenties. The hymn is addressed in the voice of Jesus to us: “I gave My life for thee, My precious blood I shed, that thou might ransomed be, and raised up from the dead. I gave, I gave My life for thee, what hast thou given for Me? I gave, I gave My life for thee, what hast thou given for Me?” And that is just the first verse. By the end of the sixth verse, it would be hard for any sensitive Christian who was paying attention to the words not to feel like crawling whimpering to the altar to rededicate his or her life. Her later hymns offered their challenge with less emotional punch. A couple of first verses from two hymns written near the end of her short life will make the point:

“Who is on the Lord’s side? Who will serve the King? Who will be His helpers, other lives to bring? Who will leave the world’s side? Who will face the foe? Who is on the Lord’s side? Who for Him will go? By Thy call of mercy, by Thy grace divine, we are on the Lord’s side—Savior, we are Thine!”

“Truehearted, wholehearted, faithful and loyal, King of our lives, by Thy grace we will be; under the standard exalted and royal, Strong in Thy strength we will battle for Thee. Peal out the watchword! Silence it never! Song of our spirits, rejoicing and free; Peal out the watchword! Loyal forever! King of our lives, by Thy grace we will be.”

How many of you recognize those hymns? (Not many hands went up). I was raised on them, but haven’t heard them much since. When I think of them, I see an eight-year-old Kansas farm boy standing straight, as tall as he could, and singing them out with all his tone-deaf little heart. Although they were written by a woman and although the second of them was once the YWCA theme song, they did what many hymns today do not. They appealed to manly virtues and yet spoke to women too. We’ve been missing the manly virtues part in recent years.

The Heart of Frances Havergal’s Message

Frances Havergal’s best known hymn and the hymn that most typified her own faith commitment is without doubt, “Take My Life, and Let it Be Consecrated.” The version we are singing leaves out the most compelling verse: “Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store. Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.” “Ever, only, all for Thee,” could have been Frances Havergal’s life motto.

One of my favorite Havergal hymns, "Lord, Speak to Me That I May Speak" still appears in many hymnals, but in my experience is not widely known. It is a prayer that you may read on the previous blog entry.

Frances Havergal’s Attitude Toward Her Early Death

Frances Havergal went out of this life far too early, but with hymns and encouraging words on her lips and in her heart. When her family expressed dismay at her pain, she whispered, “It’s home the faster!” or “So beautiful to go,” or again, “God’s will is delicious. He makes no mistakes.”

When a priest asked her if Jesus was with her now, she responded, “Of course! Oh, I want all of you to speak bright, BRIGHT words about Jesus! Oh do, do! It is all perfect peace, I am only waiting for Jesus to take me in."

Later, whispering the names of many dear ones, she added, "I love them all! I want all to come to me in heaven; tell them to trust Jesus."

Then she sang the first verse of "Jesus, I Will Trust Thee." There was then a convulsion, after which she nestled down in the pillow, folded her hands, saying, "There, now it is all over ! Blessed rest!" She looked up and maintained a radiant, steady gaze, as if meeting her Lord, for about ten minutes.

Then she tried to sing once more. She got out only word word, "He--," before passing into the hands of the Redeemer of whom she sang. To the very end, she lived for the praise of his glory.

Ever, Only, All for Him

Just a few days earlier, Frances Havergal had finished correcting the publisher’s proofs of her thirteen chapter devotional book, “Kept for the Master’s Use,” expanding on her hymn, “Take My Life, and Let it Be.” Her main point, consistent with our scripture text today is that God made, chose, loved, and redeemed us to live for the praise of his glory. He gave his Son to make this possible. Therefore, our only fitting response is to be “ever, only, all” for him.