As literature they fall below the standard of many writers, but as heart messages they satisfy the earnest soul. ‘ Fanny Crosby wrote her hymns out of a rich experi ence and they go from the heart to the heart. In “ Blessed Assurance” we find the telling o f an ex perience and the giving of a testimony “ Rescue the Per ishing” is an exhortation to Christians to go to work, as “ Jesus is Calling” is an exhortation to the unconverted to accept Christ “ Close to Thee,” “ Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,” and “ I Am Thine, O Lord” are largely true hymns in content, though cast in the Gospel song mold “ Saved by Grace” relates present experience and contemplates future glory “ Safe in the'Arms of Jesus.,” her own favorite of all her hymns, is one o f the simplest in form and language, but wonderfully sweet in its expression of absolute trust in an all-sufficient Saviour. They form a most unusual combination o f the elements of worship that belong to the true hymn, and the qualities of testimony and exhortation of a Gospel song. They create a most reverent at mosphere’and at the same time have a strong evangelistic appeal.
_ These hymns are characterized by simplicity, directness, and clarity of thought. Fanny Crosby’s, hymns, “ Safe in the.Arms o f Jesus,” “ Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour,” “ Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,” “ I Am Thine, G Lord,” and her Gospel songs, “ Saved by Grace/’ “ Blessed Assurance,” “ Rescue: the Perishing,” “ Though Your Sins Be as Scarlet,” and “ JeSus is Calling” are among her best loved poems, any one of which would have placed her in the hall o f fame. Root, who for a time taught music in the New York School for the Blind. In ad dition to her hymn writing she wrote words for such popu lar songs of the mid-nineteenth century as “ Rosalie, The Prairie Flower,” “ Hazel Dell,” and “ There’s Music in the Air,” musical setting by George F. Here she met Alexander Van Alstyne, the blind teacher of music in the same Institution, and they were married in 1858. She attended the New York School for the Blind and for eleven years was a teacher there.
How many blessings I enjoy That other people don’ t! To weep and sigh because I ’m blind, I cannot and I won’t.”