BLESSED ASSURANCE, JESUS IS MINE
"Here is a new hymn tune I have written; what does it say to you?
Mrs. Joseph Knapp, a composer of gospel music, asked the question one day as she and Fabby Crosby were chatting in the latter's home. While the blind hymn writer listened, Mrs. Knapp played her new tune several times on the piano. Suddenly, Fanny Crosby's face was lighted with inspiration.
"Why, that music says, 'Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!'" she answered. And that is how one of America's most beloved and beautiful hymns came to be written.
Fanny Crosby, who couldn't remember ever seeing the light of day, always has been admired for the remarkable way in which she turned her handicap into a blessing. She never permitted anyone to express sympathy for her blindness. One day a clergyman, talking with her, mentioned her affliction. The blind poetess surprised him by declaring that she was sometimes glad to be sightless.
"You see," she explained, "when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior."
In her account of the origin of Blessed Assurance, Fanny Crosby said, commenting on Mrs. Knapp's hymn tune:
"It seemed to me one of the sweetest tunes I had heard in a long time. She asked me to write a hymn for it, and I felt, while bringing the words and tones together, that the air and the hymn were intended for each other. In the hundreds of times that I have since heard it sung, this feeling has been more and confirmed."
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir to salvation, purchase of God.
