454. O the unsearchable riches of Christ
Fanny J. Crosby, 1820-1915
The well-known fact that Fanny Crosby was blind all her life adds pathos to the power of her songs. The hymn reveals the spiritual riches in her life notwithstanding the cross of affliction laid on her through the loss of her eyesight. Frances Ridley Havergal (See [Hymn 126]), the gifted English poet and hymn writer, paid her tribute to Fanny Crosby in the following lines:
How can she sing in the dark like this?
What is her fountain of light and bliss?
With never the light of a loving face
Must not the world be a desolate place?
O, her heart can see, her heart can see!
And its sight is strong and swift and free.
Never the ken of mortal eye
Could pierce so deep and far and high
As the eagle vision of hearts that dwell
In that lofty, sunlit citadel.
For the King himself, in his tender grace,
Hath shown her the brightness of his face;
She can read his law as a shining chart,
For his finger hath written it on her heart;
And she reads his love, for on all her way
His hand is writing it every day.
O, this is why she sings so free:
Her heart can see, her heart can see!
MUSIC. For comments on the composer, John R. Sweney, 1837-99, see [Hymn 342].