TO GOD BE THE GLORY


Lyrics by Fanny Crosby

Born in New York, Fanny Crosby was blinded at 6 weeks due to improper medical treatment. Early on, she wrote poems and lyrics for secular songs. The folowing poem was written at age 8:

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.

At 15, Fanny Crosby enrolled in New York City School for the Blind, and stayed as teacher of English grammar, rhetoric and history at the school for 11 years. Married at age 35 (to a blind musician), she wrote her first hymn at 41; she later would say that she never wrote a hymn without first kneeling in prayer. Using 200 pen names besides her own, Fanny Crosby wrote more than 8,000 hymns. In response to a question about her blindness she said, "When I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior." She was an active member of John Street Methodist Episcopal Church (America's oldest Methodist), and at one time was under contract to write three hymns per week. Fanny lived to the age of 95.

Music by William Howard Doane

Born in Connecticut, William Doane lived much of his life in Cincinnati, Ohio where he served as Sunday School superintendent for 25 years. He wrote 2,200 hymn tunes, many of them for poems written by Fanny Crosby. He also wrote many hymns for Sunday School.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY

Verse 1

To God be the glory, great things He hath done!
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin.
And opened the life gate that all may go in.

Chorus:

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father thru Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory great things He hath done.

Verse 2

O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
To every believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

Verse 3

Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done,
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
But purer, and higher, and greater will be
Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.

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