Hymn For The Week: All the Way My Savior Leads Me

.....that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. (Col 1:9)

All The Way May Savior Leads Me

When Fanny Crosby wrote, "All the way my Savior leads me" she was expressing her own testimony of God's guidance. Even her blindness, she realized, was part of His plan.

When Fanny was about six weeks old, her parent had realized with alarm that something was wrong with her eyes. The local doctor was away, but the Crosby's found a man-no one afterward recalled his name- who claimed to be a physician. He put hot poultice on the baby's inflamed eyes, insisting it would draw out the infection. The infection did clear up, but white scars appeared, and in the months that followed the baby registered no response to objects held before her. As it turned out, Fanny was not totally blind. Even in old age she could discern day from night. But her vision was gone.

Yet this stimulated other gifts, such as her phenomenal memory. As a child, Fanny memorized whole sections of the Bible, including most of the Pentateuch, the four Gospels, all of Proverbs, and vast portions of other books. Whenever she wanted to "read" a passage, she just turned there in her mental "Bible" and read it verbatim. "This Holy Book," she said when eighty-five, "has nurtured my entire life."

Years later, Fanny viewed her blindness as a special gift from God, believing He had given her a particular "soul-vision" which equipped her for a special work. "It was the best thing that could have happened to me," she declared. "How in the world could I have lived such a helpful life had I not been blind?"

"Don't blame the doctor, "Fanny said on another occasion. "He is probably dead by this time. But if I could meet him, I would tell him that he unwittingly did me the greatest favor in the world."

Through this hymn expressed Fanny Crosby's lifelong testimony, it was prompted by a specific incident in 1874. One day she didn't have enough money to pay her rent. Just as she committed the matter to God in prayer, a stranger appeared at her door and pressed a ten-dollar bill in her hand before disappearing. It was the very amount needed. That night, she wrote the words to "All the Way My Savior Leads Me."

Hymn For The Week: Christ the Lord Is Risen Today

Christ the Lord Is Risen Today-Easter Hymn (Organ)

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. (1 Corinthians 15: 14)

John and Charles Wesley soon found themselves out of favor with many fellow Anglican ministers who spurned their fiery evangelistic preaching. Many pulpits were closed to them.

A friend from his Oxford days, George Whitefield, 22, who was having the same trouble, began preaching in the open air. In London, he asked Charles to stand with him as he preached to thousands on the open air at Blackhearth, and Charles, too, got a vision for reaching the multitudes.

He made his first attempt in the outskirts of London.  "Franklyn, a farmer, invited me to preach in His field," he wrote. "I did so to about 500, I returned to the house rejoicing." soon he was preaching to thousands,  "My load was gone, and all my doubts and scruples. God shone upon my path; and I knew this was his will concerning me."

A man named Joseph Williams heard Charles in Bristol: "I found him standing on a table-board, in an erect posture...surrounded by, I guess, more than a thousand people, some of them fashionable persons, but most of the lower rank of mankind. He prayed with uncommon fervency...He then preached about half an hour in such a manner as I have scarce ever heard any man preach...I think I never heard any man labor so earnestly to convince his hearers they were all by nature in a sinful, lost, undone, damnable state; that notwithstanding, there was a possibility of their salvation, which he explained and illustrated, and then by a variety of the most forcible motives, arguments, and expostulation, did he invite, allure, quicken, and labor, if it were possible, to compel all, and every of his hearers, to believe in Christ for salvation."

Charles Wesley still preaches today in much the same way through his ageless hymn which are sung around the world each Sunday. 

Happy Resurrection Day!!!!!!!

Were You There

Hymn For The Week: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

"And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew, Golgotha." John 19:17

This hymn by Isaac Watts, labeled by the well-known theologian Matthew Arnold as the greatest hymn in the English language, was written in 1707 for use at a communion service conducted by Watts. It first appeared in print that same year in Watt's outstanding collection, Hymn and Spiritual Songs. It's original title was "Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ."

Isaac Watts was born on July 17, 1674, in Southampton, England. The eldest of nine children, he was the son of an educated deacon in a dissenting Congregational church. At the time of Isaac's birth, his father was in prison for his non-conformist beliefs. Young Watts showed an unusual-aptitude for study and learned Latin at the age of five, Greek at age nine, French at eleven and Hebrew at thirteen. He began to write verses of good quality when he was very young.

Watts once wrote, "The singing of God's praise is the part of worship most closely related to heaven; but it's performance among us is the worst on earth." One Sunday after returning from a typically poor service, Watts continued to rail against the congregational singing. His father exclaimed, "Why don't you give us something better, young man!" Before the evening service began, young Watts had written his first hymn, which was received with great enthusiasm by the people.

The youthful poet wrote a new hymn every Sunday. He went on to write new metrical versions of the Psalms with a desire to "Christianize the Psalms with the New Testament message and style." Several of his hymns that were based on these new Psalm settings are such favorites as "Jesus Shall Reign" (No. 48) and "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" (No. 66). Watts is also the author of a children's hymn, "I sing the Mighty Power of God" (No. 38). Because of this bold departure from the traditional Psalms, Isaac Watts was often considered to be a radical church-man in his day.

Watts not only rewrote the Psalms in this way, but he also wrote a number of hymns based solely on personal feelings. These hymns were known as hymns of human composure. Such hymns were very controversial during his lifetime. "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" is an example of this type of hymn written by Watts. In all Isaac Watts composed more than 600 hymns.