Fanny Crosby

138

Fanny Crosby : biography

March 24, 1820 – February 12, 1915

For two decades From November 1881,"Fanny Crosby’s Wonderful Life Ended", The Christian Herald (March 3, 1915):205, http://www.1timothy4-13.com/files/hymns/homegoing.html Crosby also supported the Bowery Mission in Manhattan.Crosby (1906), p. 161. As the Bowery Mission welcomed the ministry of women, Crosby worked actively at the Mission, often attending and speaking in the evening meetings.

Each year until the building was razed in a fire in 1897,"Victor H. Benke: 1872–1904", http://hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/e/n/benke_vh.htm Crosby addressed the large crowds attending the anniversary service, where she would also recite one of her poems written for the occasion, many of which were set to music by Victor Benke, the Mission’s volunteer organist from 1893 to 1897.Blumhofer (2005), pp. 286–287. Among the songs Crosby and Benke collaborated on were six songs published in 1901: "He Has Promised","He Has Promised", http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/h/a/hhasprom.htm "There’s a Chorus Ever Ringing","There’s a Chorus Ever Ringing", http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/t/a/c/tachorus.htm "God Bless Our School Today","God Bless Our School Today", http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/g/b/o/gbostday.htm "Is There Something I Can Do?","Is There Something I Can Do?", http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/t/s/itsicado.htm "On Joyful Wings","On Joyful Wings", http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/n/j/onjoyful.htm and "Keep On Watching"."Keep On Watching", http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/k/n/kowatchg.htm

When Jerry and Maria McAuley started the Cremorne Mission in 1882,"JERRY M’AULEY’S WORK.; THE SUCCESS OF THE CREMORNE MISSION IN THIRTY-SECOND-STREET", The New York Times (January, 8, 1883), http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F2061FFD3E5910738DDDA10894D9405B8384F0D3 in the Cremorne Garden,John Wilbur Chapman, S. H. Hadley of Water Street: A Miracle of Grace (New York, NY: Fleming H. Revell, 1906):45. at 104 West 32nd Street,"Cremorne Mission: Celebration of the Fifteenth Anniversary of Its Founding", The New York Times (January 11, 1897), http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F00C14FF395416738DDDA80994D9405B8785F0D3 as a "beachhead in a vast jungle of vice and debauchery known as Tenderloin" (near Sixth Avenue), Crosby also began supporting this new mission. Crosby attended the nightly 8.00 pm services, where gospel songs written by her and Doane were often sung, including "ballads recalling mother’s prayers, reciting the evils of intemperance, or envisioning agonizing deathbed scenes intending to arouse long-buried memories and strengthen resolves".Blumhofer (2005), pp. 291–293. After the death of Jerry McAuley in 1884,Duane V. Maxey, ed., The Story of Jerry McAuley, His Conversion, Establishment in Grace, and His Water Street Mission Work By Jerry McAuley (Holiness Data Ministry, 2000):7, http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyctr/books/1801-1900/HDM1855.pdf Crosby was inspired to write a prayer later included in rescue song books:

Lord, behold in Thy compassion Those who kneel before Thee now; They are in a sad condition None can help them, Lord, but Thou.

They are lost, but do not leave them In their dreary path to roam; There is pardon, precious pardon If to Thee by faith they come.

After McAuley’s death, Crosby continued to support the Cremorne Mission, now led by Samuel Hopkins Hadley.

Of the several city missions with which Crosby worked, some were operated by proponents of Wesleyan/Holiness doctrine, including the Door of Hope rescue home founded on October 25, 1890,Dan Graves, "October 25, 1890: Emma Whittemore Opened Door of Hope" (October, 2006), http://www.christianity.com/ChurchHistory/11630626/Emma M. Whittemore, Records of Modern Miracles, ed. F.A. Robinson, (Toronto, Ontario: Canada: Missions of Biblical Education, 1947). in a house belonging to A.B. Simpson,"Emma Whittemore and Door of Hope", Church History,2, http://www.christianity.com/ChurchHistory/11630627/page2/ to be "a refuge and a home for girls of the better class who have been tempted from home and right",Norris Magnuson, Salvation in the Slums (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1977):82; and E. Whittemore, Record of Modern Miracles, pp. 18–31. and to rescue "fallen girls" by socialite Emma Whittemore.Mae Elise Cannon, Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a Better World (InterVarsity Press, 2009):64–65."Diamond Dust Socialite Lands on Skid Row; Emma Whittemore and Door of Hope", Glimpses of Christian History 196, http://www.christianhistorytimeline.com/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses2/glimpses196.shtml