anny Jane Crosby (1820-1915; see Biographies), the most prolific writer of gospel songs who ever lived, collaborated with a number of the best-known composers of her time who worked in that idiom. Ira D. Sankey (see Biographies) published this one in his Sacred Songs and Solos, 1875. However, it was not picked by many later hymnals, appearing in only 11 books to 1950, and none since then. In 1973, when Donald P. Hustad was doing his editorial work for Hope Publishing Company’s Hymns for the Living Church, he asked E. Margaret Clarkson (1915- ; see SDAH 578) to revise this hymn for use in that book, and SDAH has used her version also.

In 1977, Hustad edited, and Hope Publishing Company published, a significant little book for all those who appreciate Fanny Crosby’s poetic gift. Fanny Crosby Speaks Again, 120 heretofore unpublished manuscripts of her poems, with several photographs and letters. About that time Clarkson visited the offices of this company in Carol Stream, Illinois, and spent an hour looking through these manuscripts. This was her reaction:

“Thank you for giving me the beautiful experience of an hour wit fanny J. Crosby!… When my hour or so was finished, I felt richly blessed. I had been in the presence of a great spirit, a saint of God. The things for which she praised God, I too praise Him. The struggles she knew, I know today. The glory of the heavenly home that blessed her way still beckons me on and blesses mine. I wonder if anyone reading my works a hundred years from now will ever so identify me with God’s pilgrims as her works identify her?

“And to think that with all that colorful, descriptive language, Fanny Crosby had never seen what she so vividly described of earth’s beauties. How surprising. I think she looked on the face of God.”

For comments on NYLAND see SDAH 67. For comments on Evans (1874-1948) see Biographies.

📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.