Week 4: Fanny Crosby
Character Traits: Faith, Trust, Joyfulness, Diligence
Fanny Jane Crosby, the hymn writer, was blind. She had been blind ever since she was a tiny baby, only a few weeks old. In spite of this affliction she had grown up to become one of the most cheerful, lovable, and noble Christians, and she wrote some of the most beautiful hymns that the world has ever sung. Among her most well-known are “Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine!” “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,” “Safe in the Arms of Jesus,” and “Saved by Grace.”
When only eight years old she wrote these lines:
Oh, what a happy soul am I!
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!
We see that Fanny began to make rhymes when she was a very little girl. She loved the musical rhythm of poetry. One day her mother told her that some of the world’s greatest poets were blind.
Because Fanny’s mother was often very busy, her grandmother continued to be her most constant teacher. From Grandmother she learned much about the love of the heavenly Father. With Grandmother’s assistance she memorized long portions of Scripture. “Child, you will never be able to take the Book from the shelf and read it, as I do,” Grandmother would say, “but you can store much of it in your bright mind, and then it will be with you wherever you go.” All through her lifetime she prized these memory treasures which her dear old grandmother had helped her to store away.
Fanny’s love for sacred music had begun when she was a very small child. She used to fancy that the birds were singing songs of praise to their Creator and that the brook which flowed past her home also sang his praise. She felt that she would like to sing words of her very own heart language, words which she had put together into hymns. The time came when she began to write such words, and then they were set to music. Then she heard them sung by others, too, wherever she attended religious services. How her heart thrilled with joy when she heard that the world was singing her songs of praise and worship to Jehovah! Her hymns were translated into other languages and sung all around the world.
Fanny Crosby lived to be ninety-four years old. In all, she wrote over eight thousand hymns. Some of them will never cease to be sung to the end of time.
Excerpts taken from the book, Girls of Courage Who Became Women of Influence.
“If I had a choice, I would still choose to remain blind…for when I die, the first face I will ever see will be the face of my blessed Saviour.”
― Fanny Crosby
Image credit: http://www.eaec.org/faithhallfame/fanny_crosby.htm“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. ”
Easy Recipe from New York: Old Fashioned Silky Creamy Custard Pie
This recipe comes from smalltownwoman.com: https://www.smalltownwoman.com/old-fashioned-silky-creamy-custard-pie/
Ingredients
1 9-inch unbaked pie crust
4 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In small bowl separate one egg white from egg yolk reserving both.
Brush crust with beaten egg white and pre-bake for 7-8 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes.
In large bowl whisk together 3 eggs plus the one spare yolk and whatever is left from the beaten egg white, sugar, salt, vanilla, cream and milk.
Pour egg mixture into piecrust and sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack. Store in the fridge.
Notes
If available use fresh ground nutmeg because it so full of flavor
I pour the egg mixture into the pie crust very carefully right there in the oven while the piecrust is on the rack.
Do not over-bake. The pie should still be somewhat jiggly.
This pie tastes and cuts best when chilled.
Biographies:
Girls of Courage Who Became Women of Influence (Chapter III) by Elsie E. Egermeier
Fanny Crosby’s Life Story by Fanny Crosby
Fanny Crosby: The Girl Who Couldn't See But Helped The World To Sing (Illustrated) by Laura Caputo-Wickham
Fanny Crosby by Bonnie C. Harvey
