SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS

In 1858, Fanny Crosby, the blind hymnist and America’s, “Queen of Gospel Songs,” quietly married Alexander Van Alsteine.  A year later, the couple suffered a tragedy that shook the deepest regions of Fanny’s heart.

She gave birth to a child.  However, as Fanny states, “…and soon the angels came down and took our infant up to God and His throne.”  No one knows if it was a boy or a girl.  In later years, she never spoke about it.  The child’s death seemed to have devastated her and she privately bore the sadness all her life.

Years later on April 30, 1868, Howard Doane, a music composer, knocked on Fanny’s door and informed her that he had a tune for her, hoping that she would ‘hear’ a hymn text in her mind as she often did when she listened to a musical score.  He told her he only had 40 minutes before he needed to leave to catch his train.  He hummed the tune for her.  Fanny clapped her hands together and said, “Why, that says, ‘SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS!’”  She retreated to another room in her small apartment, knelt on the floor, and asked God to give her the words.  Within 30 minutes, she had composed the poem in her mind and dictated it to Doane to write down.  He dashed off to catch his train.

Often when Fanny Crosby was comforting a grief-stricken mother, she would say, “Remember, my dear, your darling is safe in the arms of Jesus.”  God uses her hymn text, SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS, to bring peace and comfort to many still today.  It is not hard to understand why.  These words that God brought to Fanny Crosby in short order…no doubt had been somewhat inspired as she also found comfort in suffering the loss of her own child.