PREACHING THROUGH THE HYMNS: Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine

Words: Fanny Jane Crosby (1820-1915) in 1873 Composed: Phoebe Palmer Knapp (1839-1908) in 1873 Scripture: Hebrews 10:22-23 & John 6:47

Fanny Crosby Frances Ridley Havergal and Frances Crosby never met, but they became dear pen pals, the two most famous women hymnists of their age, the former in England and the latter in America. Havergal once wrote a poem about her American counterpart:

Sweet, blind singer over the sea, Tuneful and jubilant! How can it be? That the songs of gladness, which float so far, As if they fell from the evening star. Are the notes of one who may never see; Visible music of flower and tree; Oh, her heart can see, her heart can see! And its sight is strong and swift and free.

Another of Fanny’s dearest friends was Phoebe Knapp. While Fanny lived in the Manhattan slums and worked in rescue missions, Phoebe lived in the Knapp Mansion, a palatial residence in Brooklyn, where she entertained lavishly. She was an extravagant dresser with a wardrobe full of elaborate gowns and diamond tiaras. Her music room contained one of the finest collections of instruments in the country, and Fanny was a frequent houseguest.

One day in 1873, while Fanny was staying at the Knapp Mansion, Phoebe said she had a tune she wanted to play. Going to the music room, she sat at the piano and played a new composition of her own while the blind hymnist listened. Fanny immediately clapped her hands and exclaimed, “Why, that says, “Blessed Assurance!” She quickly composed the words, and a great hymn was born.

Many years later, D.L. Moody was preaching in New York at the 23rd Street Dutch Reformed Church. The Moody meetings had popularized Fanny Crosby’s hymns around the world and had made the blind poetess a household name. But whenever she attended a Moody meeting, she refused to be recognized, disavowing acclaim. This day the church was so crowded she could find nowhere to sit. Moody’s son, Will, seeing her, offered to find her a seat. To her bewilderment, he led her onto the platform just as the crowd was singing “Blessed Assurance.” Moody, Sr., jumped to his feet, raised his hand, and interrupted the singing. “Praise the Lord!” he shouted. “Here comes the authoress!” Fanny took her seat amid thunderous ovation, humbly thanking God for making her a blessing to so many.

Fanny Crosby wrote more than 8,000 song texts after she began writing Gospel songs in the 1860’s. She lost her sight at age six weeks and was blind the rest of her life.

Phoebe Knapp Holders of life-insurance policies in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company may not know the name of the distinguished American who founded the firm, but millions of Church goers are familiar with some of the music composed by his equally distinguished wife. Phoebe Knapp was married to the prominent Joseph Fairchild Knapp, who was offered the nomination for Mayor of New York City, and she was the mother of Joseph Palmer Knapp, who, at the time of his death in 1951 at the age of eighty-six, was head of the Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, one of the nation’s leading publishers of magazines and periodicals.

This daughter of evangelist Dr. Walter Palmer and his wife, Phoebe, was born in New York City in 1839, and early on displayed unusual musical talent. Her marriage to Knapp was described as “an ideal one in every way.” Both were members of the St. John’s Methodist Church, being active, consistent and liberal Christians. Sometime after Phoebe and Fanny completed Blessed Assurance, Fanny records their memorable visit in these words, “My dear friend, Mrs. Joseph F. Knapp, so well- known as a writer and singer of most excellent music, and as an aid and inspiration to all who know her, had composed the tune, and it seemed to me one of the sweetest I had heard for a long time. She asked me to write a hymn for it, and I felt while bringing the words and tones together that the air and the hymn were intended for each other.”

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine; O what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God; Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story, this is my song; Praising my Savior all the day long; This is my story, this is my song: Praising my Savior all the long.

At the death of her husband in 1891, Mrs. Knapp was left an annual income of some $50,000, much of which was dispensed in charitable and philanthropic work. Mrs. Knapp, “sweet singer, accomplished organist and earnest Christian worker,” died at Poland Springs, Maine, July 10, 1908.

Historical Setting for Blessed Assurance  The lyrics to “Home on the Range” were published in 1873.  Barbed wire production had its beginning in 1873.  Panic of 1873, economic crisis that affected the United States and Europe.  University of California establishes first medical school at U.C. San Francisco.  First ascent of Mount Whitney, CA ~ 14,494’.  First cable car in America goes into operation in San Francisco.  Toronto Argonaut Football club is established as first professional football team.  Columbia, Princeton, Rutgers, and Yale set rules for collegiate football.  Jesse James and James Younger gang’s first train robbery in Adair, IA.

Courtesy of TimelessTruths