Fanny Crosby

Bernard Ruffin

During the era of the gospel song, a light, informal hymn written in the style of the popular ballad, Fanny Crosby reigned supreme. This would have encompassed, approximately, the years 1870 to 1920. Her hymns were sung all over the world. But Fanny Crosby was known for more than her hymns. She was one of the three most prominent (D.L. Moody and Ira Sankey were the others) in American evangelical religious life in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. She did more than write hymns. She was a famous preacher and lecturer and was a devoted home mission worker. She was venerated as practically a living saint in her later years; in fact she was often called "the Protestant saint" or "the Methodist saint." Fanny Crosby, in her ninety-five years, not only wrote around nine thousand hymns -- more than anybody else in recorded Christian history -- but also more than a thousand secular...