TO GOD BE THE GLORY

TO GOD BE THE GLORY – EMHB 313

Author: Frances Jane Alstyne (1820-1915)
Tune: W. H. Doane (1832-1916)

Introduction:

Mrs. Frances Jane Van Alstyne also known as Fanny Crosby, though blinded from six weeks old by an incompetent Doctor, wrote over 8,000 hymns. About her blindness she said, “It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind. If all my earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God, if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things around me.”

“To God be the glory” was written in the early 1870s and was popular with Ira Sanky who used it in his British Crusade with fellow American Evangelist Dwight Moody in 1873.

The hymn it seems lapsed into relative obscurity for nearly three quarters of a century until it was re-discovered by members of Bill Graham Evangelistic Organization and it was included by Cliff Barrows, one of the Bill Graham’s team in the song book for the 1954 London Crusade. It was later used the same year in their Crusade in Nashville Tennessee in America and has now found its way into several American and British hymnals.

Much of the hymns popularity is undoubtedly attributed to the tune by W. H. Doane (1832-1916).

Fanny Crosby was married to a blind musician known as Alexander Van Alstyne. She died on the 12th of February 1915. Engraved on her grave stone at Bridge Port Connecticut are these words “She hath done what she could” (Mark 14:8).

EMHB 313

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.

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, through Jesus the Son:
And give Him the glory! Great things He hath done!

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.

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 rapture, when Jesus we see.

Adesegun Akitoye
http://www.repeatrichrelief.com