Fanny Crosby - Religion

Religion

Crosby, who considered herself a "primitive Presbyterian", and the other students of the Blind Institution were required to attend daily morning and evening prayers, as well as Sunday morning and evening services held there and conducted by visiting clergymen of a variety of denominations, including Dutch Reformed, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Methodist. From 1839 Crosby usually attended church services and class meetings, at the Eighteenth Street Methodist Episcopal Church (established in 1835) at 305–307 West 18th Street, in what is now the Chelsea district of New York City. Later Crosby's understanding of the Christian faith could be described as "rooted in Puritanism, developed by Methodism, warmed by the Holiness movement, and nourished by her Congregationalism".

From May to November 1849, there was a cholera epidemic in New York City. Crosby remained at the NYIB to nurse the sick, rather than leaving the city. Subsequently, according to Blumhofer, "Crosby seemed worn, languid, even depressed" when the Institution re-opened in November, forcing her to teach a lighter load. According to Bernard Ruffin:

In this atmosphere of death and gloom, Fanny became increasingly introspective over her soul’s welfare. She began to realize that something was lacking in her spiritual life. She knew that she had gotten wrapped up in social, political, and educational reform, and did not have a true love for God in her heart. She had attended Methodist church meetings twice a week for several years, and although she helped with the music, she did so on the condition that she would not be called upon to testify.

In November 1850, Crosby was invited to attend the annual fall series of revival meetings at the newly constructed Thirtieth Street Methodist Episcopal Church (later renamed the Chelsea Methodist Episcopal Church). Despite attending each evening service during the fall campaign, and after two previous unsuccessful attempts to pray through to spiritual victory during those meetings, on November 20, 1850, Crosby left her pew again and knelt at the "anxious seat" at the front of the church sanctuary, and sought an assurance of her salvation. Crosby later testified: "My very soul was flooded with celestial light. I sprang to my feet, shouting 'Hallelujah'". She described this "November Experience" as "a watershed of sorts in her life". However, Crosby acknowledged that there "was no sudden or dramatic change in her way of life", writing: "My growth in grace was very slow, from the beginning".

Until spring 1887 Crosby attended churches of various denominations, including the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims in Brooklyn Heights pastored by Congregationalist abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher who was an innovator with church music. She also attended the Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church, pastored by her distant cousin Howard Crosby, and the Trinity Episcopal church. Crosby also liked to worship at the North West Dutch Reformed church and the Central Presbyterian Church (later known as the Brooklyn Tabernacle). In later life Crosby nominated Theodore Ledyard Cuyler, who pastored the North East Dutch Reformed Church as one of her favourite preachers. While tradition insists Crosby was a member "in good standing" of the John Street Methodist Episcopal Church in New York City, there are no contemporaneous records to confirm this. By 1869 Crosby attended the Chelsea Methodist Episcopal Church.

While not identified publicly with the American holiness movement of the second half of the 19th century, and despite having left no record of an experience of entire sanctification, Crosby was a fellow traveler of the Wesleyan holiness movement, including in her circle of friends prominent members of the American Holiness movement and attending Wesleyan/Holiness camp meetings. For example, Crosby was a friend of Walter and Phoebe Palmer, "the mother of the holiness movement", and "arguably the most influential female theologian in Christian history", and their daughter Phoebe Knapp, with whom she wrote "Blessed Assurance", often visiting the Methodist camp grounds at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, as their guest. For many years (from at least 1877 until at least 1897), Crosby vacationed each summer at Ocean Grove, where she would speak in the Great Auditorium and hold receptions in her cottage to meet her admirers.

In 1877 Crosby met William J. Kirkpatrick, one of the most prolific composers of gospel song tunes, and "the most prominent publisher in the Wesleyan/Holiness Movement", whom she called "Kirkie", with whom she wrote many hymns. Some of her hymns reflected her Wesleyan beliefs, including her call to consecrated Christian living in "I Am Thine, O Lord" (1875):

Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the power of grace divine.
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine.

In spring 1887 Crosby joined by "confession of faith" the Cornell Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church.