Friday Hymn: Safe in the Arms of Jesus
SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS
-1868-
Words by: Fanny J. Crosby
Music by: William H. Doane
Our family was talking about Fanny Crosby as we walked around old NYC streets last weekend, as she was a former resident too. Fanny was a prolific hymn and poetry writer, and was blind. It’s hard to imagine how she managed such a place without sight. Yet instead of focusing on her own lack, she lived the last 30 years of her life there in one of the poorest neighborhoods in order to serve people who were desperate and diseased. During that time, in the 1870s, she wrote the well-known “Blessed Assurance” and poignantly, “All the Way My Savior Leads Me.”
Another of her hymns was this touching one, which she said was for the bereaved, especially for mothers who had lost children. Fanny herself had lost her only baby years before and rarely spoke of it. These words were dear to her and many others. A pastor of a NYC church told her that it had given more “peace and satisfaction to mothers who have lost their children than any other hymn I have ever known.”
SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast,
There by His love o’ershaded,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.
Hark! ’tis the voice of angels,
Borne in a song to me,
Over the fields of glory,
Over the jasper sea.
Refrain:
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast,
There by His love o’ershaded,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe from corroding care,
Safe from the world’s temptations,
Sin cannot harm me there.
Free from the blight of sorrow,
Free from my doubts and fears;
Only a few more trials,
Only a few more tears. [Refrain]
Jesus, my heart’s dear refuge,
Jesus has died for me;
Firm on the Rock of Ages,
Ever my trust shall be.
Here let me wait with patience,
Wait till the night is o’er;
Wait till I see the morning
Break on the golden shore.
