Redeemed - Fanny Crosby

Fanny Crosby, the well-known prolific hymn and gospel songwriter, was born in New York in 1820. When she was six weeks old, she caught a cold that caused inflammation in her eyes, and a doctor mistakenly applied a poultice to her eyes that left her blind for the rest of her life. What could have been devastating in her life never prevented her from having a cheerful outlook on life. It’s estimated that she wrote more than eight thousand hymn poems, and her words expressed no signs of bitterness but only joy and love for the Lord. 

“Aunt Fanny,” as she was affectionately called by many, was once asked if she had written a song about her conversion experience. She replied, “I would write many hymns to describe the joy of my salvation. The one that stands out the most to me right now is this one.” She began to sing a song of testimony she’d written in 1882, “Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!” 

The opening phrase of that song speaks of loving to proclaim the message of Christ’s redemption. These words describe the life of Fanny Crosby, for that’s exactly what she did. She proclaimed the message through her many songs, as well as when she spent many hours in missions work in the Skid Row area of Manhattan. There, she spoke to many who were in desperate need of redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ.

William J. Kirkpatrick, a composer who often wrote the music for Crosby’s poems, provided the joyful tune for this popular gospel song.  It was first published in Kirkpatrick’s “Songs of Redeeming Love” in 1882.  The hymn originally had five stanzas, although the last stanza is often omitted from hymnals today.

To redeem means “to rescue something at a price.”  Fanny was familiar with the word since she had much of the Bible committed to memory, and she would have run across it many times. Christ came to rescue fallen mankind at a great price; He shed blood and death at Calvary.

Reading or singing through these verses, the believer is reminded of many blessings of being “redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.” A few include being made His child forever (verse 1), heavenly rewards, and an eternal dwelling place (verse 5). Christians sometimes miss the challenge to proclaim the message, as this song admonishes. The Lord was always part of Fanny Crosby’s thoughts; His love was the theme of her life and of the songs she wrote. She couldn’t keep silent, but she had to proclaim the story of redemption to those who needed to hear it. May this encourage believers to be more effective in telling the gospel to others. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:6-7).

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