God Can Use The Weakest Vessel

Frances was only six weeks old when her doctor mistakenly treated her with the wrong thing, thinking it was eyedrops. She was blind from that day for the rest of her life. But in spite of her lifelong blindness she never held any ill feelings against the doctor. Speaking many years later about that unfortunate incident she said, “I have not for a moment, in more than eighty-five years, felt a spark of resentment against him; for I have always believed that the good Lord, in His infinite mercy, by this means consecrated me to the work which I am permitted to do. When I remember how I have been blessed, how can I repine? Darkness may throw a shadow over my outer vision, but there is no cloud that can keep the sunlight of hope from a trustful soul.”

‘The work’ she was permitted to do began to manifest itself from an early age. She had quite a keen poetic mind. And by the time she was a teenager she was had published a volume of poems that attracted the praise of William Bryant, a famous American poet. However, it wasn’t until she was forty-three years old that Frances Jane Crosby (better known as Fanny) started writing hymns. It all came about when well-known people asked her to put words to tunes they had composed. This began a lifelong passion for hymn writing. Fanny Crosby penned over 8000 hymns before she died at age ninety-five. For over a hundred and fifty years now churches all over the world have been singing her great hymns. One of her famous ones is called ‘I Shall Know Him.’ Mr. John Sweeny, a composer of hymns for the great D.L. Moody’s song leader Ira Sankey, sent a melody to Fanny and asked her to write something ‘tender and sympathetic.’ She said that a train of thought came to her that she would know Jesus by the print of the nails in His hand. Thus came these beautiful words from her heart.

When my life’s work is ended and I cross the swelling tide,

When the bright and glorious morning I shall see;

I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side,

And His smile will be the first to welcome me.

Chorus

I shall know Him, I shall know Him,

And redeemed by His side I shall stand;

I shall know Him, I shall know Him,

By the print of the nails in His hand.

Other great hymns she wrote include, ‘Safe In The Arms Of Jesus’ ‘I Am Thine O Lord’ ‘Take The World But Give Me Jesus’ ‘Blessed Assurance’ ‘He Hideth My Soul’ ‘Pass Me Not O Gentle Saviour’ ‘Tell Me The Story of Jesus’ “To God Be The Glory’ ‘Redeemed How I Love To Proclaim It’ ‘More Like Jesus’ ‘I Am Thine O Lord’ ‘Near The Cross’ and many many more.

Bet some of you are beginning to hum some of those old hymns right now!

Not bad for a little girl who went blind at six weeks old.

- Pastor David Goudy