The Opelousas courier., 1899-12-23
BLINDNESS IS A BLESSING,
So Says the Famous Hymn Writer. auns
Crosby.

LIN tou tNi0h you Outu Hflu me
srieving because l am b!ind?' Mrs.
Fanny Crosby, the sightless hymn
writer, asked when I expressed sur
prise at finding her SO different from
any picture my Imagination lad
painted. "Ah, my dear, loss Of sight
is one of my greatest blessings. But
for my blindness I should never have
realized SO perfectly Gods mercies; I
should not have received so good an
education, nor should l have cultivated
my memory to such an extent.
II write my hymns, as a rule, six
or seven at a sitting. 1 mean by that
[ compose and hold them in my mind
until I have six or seven.
my memory is tie storehouse of
all my knowledge; as you who retain
your sight go to the library and real
a book OF consult a dictionary to as
certain facts, I turn a leaf in my me
mory, and if ever it has been placed
there I find it. Before I was nine
years old I had committed to memory
the first four gospels, as we'll as the
first four books of the Old Testament.
1t was my habit in my childhood and
early youth to memorize five chapters
a week, SO now, you see. [ sit here
with my hands folded and turn the
pages of my memory bible as I COM
pose my hymns.
"Hynn writing in my opinion, re-
luires another talent besides that of
poesy, for all great poets are not great
hymn-writers, and of course tue re-
verse is also true. Ny hymns are
written oftener from inner sugges-
tons than they are inspired by actual
incidents. Though some, and many
Of them the public consider my best,
have been inspired directly by strik-
ing incidents. Now, you may remem-
Der having heard Rescue the Perish
ing Well. the words came to me
like q fash. You know 1 teach in a
Methodist mission in Water street. and
one night at a meeting, while I was
leading, a poor boy under l. years OF
age came forward and asked our pray
ers. He had come from the country
to New York in search for work and
had been led astray. AS 1 listened to
his story the words Of that hymn ca:ne
to me almost if not exactly as they
stand today.
"'Then again I had been very much
in need Of money, and quite unex-
pectedly received just the sum I
wished. At once there welled up i'll
my mind, or my heart, I cannot say
which, the words, of All the Way My
Savior Leads Me- Again Safe in the
Arms Of Jesus was inspired by an
incident which touched very nearly
my heart, but about which L should
prefer not to speak just now. Another
time I will tell you, but not now.
''Oftenest, perhaps, my hymns have
been written to order, Don't be sur
prised; hymn-writing comes as ma
turally to me as prose writing does to
you.
"'The Prodigal's Return was writ
ten in just that manner. Mr.. Brad
bury came to ME II day, saying,
Fannie, can't you write me a hymn
for this tune?' and he hummed the
tune-'Joy! Joy! joy! there is JOY in
heaven with the angels; Joy. Joy. JOY!
for the prodigal's RETURN sprang to
my lips as he finished, and in a few
minutes he had the hymn as it stands
today. .......
tNow, besides hymn writing my
work consists i'll going down several
times each week TO the business place
Of the large firm who publishes all my
hymns these days and criticising the
work of other hymn writer's. We have
many in this country who have done,
and are still doing, fine work. The
manuscripts as they come in are read
{, me and I c.iticise and often suggest
alterations for those which my pub
fishers purchase.
There is needed something more
| than a mere jingle of words i'll order
10 give q hymn an abiding life. There
must be something which appeals
| directly to the Christian conscious
ness and coming forth from the ex-
perience of the writer. So few per-
sons, even though they have a talent for
poetry, can be successful hymn
writer's, I think chiefly because they
have never learned to feel. That is
one of the blessings produced by my
loss of sight. I feel Rhyming comes
as natural to me as breathing-indeed,
it is often an effort to prevent myself
from speaking in rhymes. But can
not write prose: every y laughs at
it. 1t resembles, more than anything
else to me, a man wearing tight shoes.
I never write a line of it when it can
be avoided. Lafayette McLaws, in
Chicago Record.