Fanny Crosby

She visited a Manhattan prison one spring day in 1868 to speak to inmates.  As she was leaving, one cried out in a pleading voice, “Good Lord, do not pass me by.”  She couldn’t get the man’s plea out of her mind as she composed a poem that evening, “Pass Me Not.”   A tune was added which she included in a songbook of hymns in 1870.  “Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior” was one of 8000 hymns Frances Jean (Fanny) Crosby (1820-1915) wrote during her lifetime.  While this hymn may be less familiar, she also wrote more popular hymns such as “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine” and “To God be the Glory.”  She wrote so many hymns that editors forced her to adopt pen names so their hymnals wouldn’t be overloaded with her music.  When Fanny was an infant, an unqualified doctor applied an ill-advised treatment to her eyes that rendered her sightless.  Her first poem at age eight included the words, “O, what a happy soul I am, although I cannot see, I am resolved that in this world, contented I will be.”  The first stanza of “Pass Me Not” refers to someone longing to be seen by Jesus.  While the person is unidentified, blind Bartimaeus comes to mind in Luke 8 who calls out to Jesus as he is passing by.  In the second stanza, her reference to “help my unbelief” recalls the man in Mark 8 who says to Jesus, “I believe, help my unbelief.”  Her words in the third stanza, “Save me by Thy grace” brings to mind God’s promise of grace in Ephesians 2.8-10.  In the fourth stanza, “Whom have I on earth but you” are words taken from Psalm 73.  While Christ never passes by anyone, we may feel forgotten in difficult circumstances. Fanny’s song leads us into prayer: