August 2025 - "Safe in the Arms of Jesus"

This month’s free tab is an arrangement of the hymn “Safe in the Arms of Jesus”. The words were written by one of America's most prolific hymn writers, Frances Jane VanAlstyne, better known as Fanny Crosby. She is said to have written more than 8,000 poems during her lifetime, the vast majority of which were of a religious nature that eventually were paired with melodies and made into hymns. Fanny was blind from the age of 6 weeks. At 15 she enrolled in the New York Institute for the Blind. She was a student there for 8 years and upon graduation, she accepted a faculty position. She published her first collection of secular poems at the age of 24. She became very well-known during her lifetime and became a popular public speaker. She corresponded with several U.S. presidents, senators, generals, and other dignitaries.

Crosby often collaborated with many noted hymnists of her time to pair her poems with musical settings. One frequent collaborator and close friend was William H. Doane. It was Doane who composed the melodies for a number of Crosby’s most well-known hymns, including “Blessed Assurance”, “Near the Cross”, and Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior”. In 1868, Doane paid a brief visit to Crosby’s home in New York City. He had less than an hour before he had to catch a train to Cincinnati for a Sunday School convention that was being held there. He had just finished composing a new melody which he was hoping Crosby could listen to, and then telegraph him some lyrics for it in time to present at the convention. After the first listen, Crosby told Doane that she had been meditating on the Bible verse Deuteronomy 33:27 recently, and that the words “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” seemed to spring forth from his melody. In the span of 40 minutes, she had completed 3 verses of a poem to pair with his music. Doane presented the completed hymn at the convention, and later that year it was included in a collection of Sunday School hymns and quickly spread around the country. It was popular as a soothing lullaby, and also became a hymn that was commonly sung at funerals. Crosby herself was asked to recite the words at the funeral of President Ulysses S. Grant.

Here’s a link to a YouTube video of the hymn presented by vocalist and autoharp player Diana McMahan:

In music and friendship,

—Tull

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