All the Way My Saviour Leads Me
Psalm 37:23 The steps of a goodman are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.
This beloved gospel hymn was the expression of gratitude to God after a direct answer to prayer. It is reported that one day Fanny Crosby desperately needed five dollars and did not know where she could obtain this amount. As was her custom, she began to pray about this matter. Within a few minutes, a stranger appeared at her door with just the right amount. “I have no way of accounting for this,” she wrote, “except to believe that God, in answer to my prayer, put it into the heart of this good man to bring the money. My first thought was, it is so wonderful that way the Lord leads me. I immediately wrote the poem and Dr. Lowry set it to music.” The hymn first appeared in a Sunday School collection, Brightest and Best, compiled by William H. Doane and Robert Lowry in 1875.
Fanny Jane Crosby was born of humble parents at Southeast, New York, on March 24, 1823. She was blinded at the age of six weeks by improper medical treatment. Throughout her lifetime she was a faithful member of the St. John Methodist EpiscopalChurch in New York City. She was educated at the New York School for the Blind. From 1847 to 1858 she served as a teacher at this school. In 1858 she married a blind musician, Alexander Van Alstyne, a highly respected teacher of music at the blind institution.