Blessed Assurance

...nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

2 Timothy 1:12

Frances Ridley Havergal and Frances (Fanny) Crosby never met, but they became dear pen pals--the two most famous women hymnists of their age, the former in England and the latter in America. Havergal once wrote a poem about her American counterpart:

Sweet, blind singer over the sea, Tuneful and jubilant! How can it be,

That the songs of gladness, which float so far, As if they fell from the evening star

Are the notes of one who may never see

'Visible music' of the flower and tree...

Oh, her heart can see, her heart can see!

And its sight is strong and swift and free....

Another of Fanny's dearest friends was Phoebe Knapp. While Fanny lived in the Manhattan slums and worked in rescue missions, Phoebe lived in the Knapp Mansion, a palatial residence in Brooklyn, where she entertained lavishly. She was an extravagant dresser with a wardrobe full of elaborate gowns and diamond tiaras. Her music room contained one of the finest collections of instruments in the country, and Fanny was a frequent houseguest.

One day, in 1873, while Fanny was staying at the Knapp Mansion, Phoebe said she had a tune she wanted to play. Going to the music room, she sat at the piano and played a new composition of her own while the blind hymnist listened. Fanny immediately clapped her hands and exclaimed, "Why, that says, 'Blessed Assurance!'" She quickly composed the words, and a great hymn was born.

Taken from the book: Then Sings My Soul