****TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS

TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS, was written by Helen Lemmel but the real story is about two remarkable women who had much in common; they were contemporaries; both with artistic talents that merged to create one of the most loved spiritual songs of the 19^th century.  But they had never met.

In 1875, at the age of 12, Helen’s family emigrated to the United States.  She was a gifted musician, songwriter, and singer.

In 1907, at the age of 43, she went to Germany, for four years of intensive vocal training, where she met and married her husband. They moved back to the United States in 1911 and she continued singing in the Gospel music circuits.  Eventually, she became the vocal music teacher at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.

But then tragedy struck.  She developed an affliction that resulted in blindness. Her husband couldn’t cope with the thought of a blind wife, so he abandoned her.  She had nowhere to turn but to wholly trust in the Lord.

She retired from Moody and moved to Seattle, where she continued to write poems and set them to music. In complete blindness, she would pick out the notes on a small keyboard and call on friends to record her melodies before she forgot them.

 

Whenever her friends asked how she was, her frequent reply was, “I am fine in the things that count.”  She continued to write until she died at the age of 97 years.  In all, she authored about 500 hymns.

So, what about the other woman?  How did two women who never met, collaborate in the writing of this hymn?

In 1901, Lilias Trotter set off for a time alone With God.  As a result of her meditation that day, she authored a devotional pamphlet titled, “Focused.”

About twenty years later, one of her friends found the pamphlet and read it to her. Helen was impacted by one sentence: “Turn full your soul’s vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him.” 

Those words seemed to repeat over and over in her mind during the following days.  That was her inspiration to write both music and text for the song “TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS.” 

In 1926, Lilias Trotter, revised her original booklet, combined it with Helen Lemmel’s text and music, and published it with the new title, “Focussed:  A Story & A Song.”

(On a side note, I find the similarities between Helen Lemmel and Fanny Crosby to be interesting.  Both ladies were very prolific hymn writers and, being totally blind, both used the imagery of looking at and seeing their Savior through the eyes of faith.)

  

****TAKE THE WORLD BUT GIVE ME JESUS

She was a popular, in demand, speaker, with a great sense of humor. 

She was a concert singer, and an accomplished organist and harpist. 

She was the first woman ever, to speak before the Senate, and she was a personal friend to several presidents.

She spent several days a week in Christian mission work in New York’s Bowery district.

Yet, in spite of all the notoriety, Fanny Crosby lived a very difficult life in a New York City tenement building. 

When she was six weeks old, she was completely blinded for life, by a quack doctor.  Her father died when she was a toddler and her mother was left to find meager work as a maid, to provide for their basic needs.  So, she was raised by her grandmother.

Although she didn’t start writing until she was in her mid-40s, she wrote nearly 9000 hymns; approximately one every other day until she died at age 95.

One day when Fanny Crosby was talking to one of her neighbors, he began complaining about his poverty.  “If I had wealth I would be able to do just what I wish to do, and I would be able to make an (impact) in the world.”

(Take a moment to think about that.  That would be like complaining about the inconvenience of a hangnail to a quadruple amputee.)  It probably wasn’t a good idea for him to whine like that to Fanny Crosby.  She replied, “Well, YOU can TAKE THE WORLD, BUT GIVE ME JESUS.” 

That conversation inspired her and, within a few hours, she had written the song. 

Every stanza starts with that same phrase.  It reminds us of Paul’s words, “…I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” (Phil. 3:8)

In the last verse, she employed a signature theme that appears in many of her hymns, “… in His cross my trust shall be, till with clearer, brighter vision, face to face my Lord I see!”

Fanny once told her mother, "if I had a choice, I would choose to remain blind ... for when I die; the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my blessed Saviour."

****SAVED BY GRACE

 

Saved By Grace

 

When she was six weeks old Fanny Crosby developed an infection in her eyes. Her doctor treated them with a mustard paste. Fanny screamed with pain and her parents begged the doctor to remove the ointment. But he insisted that it be left on her eyes for a full day to kill the infection. When it was finally removed, the damage was done. Her corneas were severely burned, and Fanny spent her entire life in total blindness.

About a year later her father died and her 21-year-old mother took a job as a maid to provide for herself and her daughter. So, Fanny was left in the care of her grandmother, Eunice, who devoted her life to raising and educating her granddaughter.  Eunice spent many hours reading the Bible to Fanny. She taught her the importance of prayer and a close relationship with God. 

Fanny had an amazing capacity for memorizing large passages of Scripture. She could quote the entire Pentateuch, the Gospels, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and many of the Psalms. 

She considered her blindness a blessing from God. She wrote, "It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank Him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow, I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things around me."

That attitude was evident early in her life. When she was just eight years old, she wrote this poem: "Oh, what a happy soul am I!  Although I cannot see, I am resolved that in this world, Contented, I will be. How many blessings I enjoy, That other people don’t? To weep and sigh because I'm blind, I cannot, and I won't."

Those words remind us of Paul’s admonition to the church in Philippi. “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:  I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ, Who strengthens me.”

Fanny Crosby was the most prolific gospel songwriter in American History. She wrote nearly 9000 hymns. Her eyes were blind, but her spiritual sight was razor sharp. Many of her songs contain allusions to the day when she would finally see her Savior. Here are some examples that you might recognize:

In BLESSED ASSURANCE, she wrote, “Visions of rapture now burst on my sight.”

Or "HE HIDETH MY SOUL in the cleft of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I see."

In  ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME, are the words, “Lo! A spring of joy I see.”

And in, TO GOD BE THE GLORY, “But purer and higher and greater will be, Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.”

Or in, TELL ME THE STORY OF JESUS; "a story of love so tender, clearer than ever I see.”

“NEAR THE CROSS! O Lamb of God, bring its scenes before me;”

REDEEMED has this phrase, “I know I shall see in His beauty, the King in whose law I delight;”

And in GIVE ME JESUS, are these words; “let me view His constant smile.”

Fanny once told her mother, "if I had a choice, I would choose to remain blind ... for when I die; the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my blessed Saviour."

That remark may have been her inspiration for at least a couple songs; MY SAVIOR FIRST OF ALL has these great lyrics; “When my lifework is ended and I cross the swelling tide, when the bright and glorious morning I shall see; I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side, and His smile will be the first to welcome me.”

In this great hymn of faith that I am featuring today, notice that she repeated this same line at the end of each stanza, “And I shall see Him Face to Face and Tell the Story, SAVED BY GRACE.”

Here are the lyrics:

1.  Someday the silver cord will break, And I no more as now shall sing; But, oh, the joy when I shall wake Within the palace of the King! And I shall see Him face to face And tell the story—Saved by grace.

2.  Someday my earthly house will fall; I cannot tell how soon ’twill be; But this I know—my All in All Has now a place in heav’n for me. And I shall see Him face to face And tell the story—Saved by grace.

3.  Someday, when fades the golden sun Beneath the rosy tinted west, My blessed Lord will say, “Well done!” And I shall enter into rest. And I shall see Him face to face And tell the story—Saved by grace.

4.  Someday, till then I’ll watch and wait, My lamp all trimmed and burning bright, That when my Savior ope's the gate, My soul to Him may take its flight. And I shall see Him face to face And tell the story—Saved by grace.

 

(Comments are welcomed, you may contact me at ralphmpetersen@gmail.com or by phone at (951) 321 9235.)