Fanny Crosby (1897) Hymns Forgotten (561) Rest If You Will (CH:588) Hebrews 4:9

Fanny Crosby (Lyrics - 1897) Hymns Forgotten Rest If You Will Original Music: Charles Edward Pollock Cyber Hymnal No: 588 Bible Ref: Hebrews 4:9 (KJV) "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God". L Y R I C S O why are you cling­ing to earth’s fad­ing flow­ers, Tho’ frag­rant its blos­soms and love­ly its bow­ers? The cold breath of win­ter will sweep them away, Then why from your fa­ther­land, O why will you stay? Refrain Why will you stay? Je­sus calls you to­day, Your poor ach­ing hearts for rest are long­ing still, And yet in His mer­cy you may rest if you will. O why are you dream­ing of hopes that are frail, That die like the leaf­let when tossed by the gale? The heart’s wea­ry long­ings the world can­not still, And yet in the Sav­ior you may rest if you will. Refrain O why are you slight­ing the voice of the Lord, Refusing to fol­low His life giv­ing Word? No love like the Sav­ior’s your lone hearts can fill, That love is in­vit­ing you to rest if you will. Refrain O why are you wait­ing when time flies apace? Take heed that ye spurn not God’s mes­sage of grace; O trust not the plea­sures that charm to de­ceive, But come to the Sav­ior and, rep­ent­ing, be­lieve. Refrain B I O G R A P H Y O F F A N N Y C R O S B Y Fanny was the daugh­ter of John and Mer­cy Cros­by, and wife of or­gan­ist Al­ex­an­der Van Al­styne, who like her, was blind. Though blind­ed by an in­com­pe­tent doc­tor at six weeks of age, she wrote ov­er 8,000 hymns. About her blind­ness, Fan­ny said: It seemed in­tend­ed by the bless­ed pro­vi­dence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dis­pen­sa­tion. If per­fect 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 ab­out me. On her 85th birth­day, Am­eri­can pre­si­dent Gro­ver Cleve­land wrote to Fan­ny: My dear friend: It is more than fif­ty years ago that our ac­quaint­ance and friend­ship be­gan; and ev­er since that time I have watched your con­tin­uous and in­ter­es­ted la­bor in up­lift­ing hu­man­ity, and point­ing out the way to an ap­pre­ci­ation of God’s good­ness and mer­cy. I am, there­fore, ex­ceed­ing­ly gra­ti­fied to learn that your eigh­ty-fifth birth­day is to be ce­le­brat­ed with a dem­on­stra­tion of this re­mem­brance. As one proud to call you an old friend, I de­sire to be ear­ly in con­gra­tu­lat­ing you on your long life of use­ful­ness, and wish­ing you in the years yet to be add­ed to you, the peace and com­fort born of the love of God. (From Cyber Hymnal) The Lord Jesus laid a burden on my heart to help in reviving the unheard and forgotten hymns of our dear Fanny Crosby, since there are only around 27 of her hymns which are commonly sung and in use presently. Contemporary tunes have been used wherever needed, generated by AI, so that the younger generation will be encouraged to learn and sing these timeless and Biblically based hymns. May the name of the Lord Jesus Christ continue to be Worshiped, Praised, Exalted & Lifted up as we all await His soon return to this earth. Philippians 2:10,11 (KJV) "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things in the earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father". Acts 16:31 (KJV) "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house". As the United States of America celebrate their 250th year of Independence, It's our prayer that America and the World will not only revive and sing the forgotten hymns of their Un'sung' hero: FANNY CROSBY", but turn back to the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land". 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV) For those of us who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, let us lay hold of God's promises, and live Godly lives as we await Christ's coming: Isaiah 64:4 (KJV) "For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he had prepared for him that waiteth for him". Matthew 13:16 "But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear". (KJV)