Sometimes we might get a little too sophisticated for our own good. Yes, there are great hymns with glorious melodies and harmonies and with rich and profound lyrics. But there are also wonderful hymns – “classic” hymns – with simple but beautiful music and with uncomplicated but immediately understandable lyrics. We need to maintain, and perhaps renew, our appreciation of the gospel songs we learned as children in Sunday School. We might be tempted to think these songs to simplistic and sentimental, characteristics of much of the hymn writing of the Victorian era. But isn’t the gospel simple enough for a child to understand, and a truth that has not touched us unless it has also touched out emotions?
Such are the hymns (more than ten thousand of them!) from the heart and pen of Francis Jane Van Alstyne, whom we know as Fanny Crosby (1820-1915).The daughter of John and Mercy Crosby, was born in Southeast, Putnam County, New York, March 24, 1820. She became blind at the age of six weeks from maltreatment of her eyes during a spell of sickness. A traveling “medicine man” (!) offered to help with an eye infection when she was just an infant. The poultice he prepared and applied to her eyes permanently burned them, preventing her from ever gaining sight. Her family sought professional medical care later, but to no avail. She remained blind for her entire 95 years.