Fanny Crosby Week: "Redeemed!"

"Testimony" was once a word more frequently used in church than it is today. In a more simple era of the Pentecostal church congregations looked forward to the "testimony services," usually on Sunday evenings. Members were invited to stand and testify, or relate how the Lord was at work in their lives. It was during testimony services that my interest was often alerted and my faith was reinforced as I heard how Jesus had healed people of a myriad of diseases, had delivered others from gross habits and had made provision for some in extraordinary need. The absence of enough testimonies was a cause for corporate prayer. The pastor would urge, "If we are praying and believing, God is working and we ought to be eager to testify!"

Our hymn books were full of songs of testimony. I remember that as a boy I learned to sing a Fanny Crosby song of testimony, "Redeemed." The congregation sang with enthusiasm. Ladies would often lift a hand holding a handkerchief with a colorfully crocheted border and gently reinforce their affirmation with a wave and a tear. All my senses are now employed as I recall the evenings when my church sang Ms. Crosby’s testimony and embraced it as my own.

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!
Redeemed through. His infinite mercy,
His child, and forever, I am.
Chorus
Redeemed, redeemed,
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed, redeemed,
His child, and forever, I am.
Redeemed, and so happy in Jesus,
No language my rapture can tell;
I know that the light of His presence
With me does continually dwell.

I think of my blessed Redeemer,
I worship Him all the day long;
I sing, for I cannot be silent!
His love is the theme of my song.

I know I shall see in His beauty
The King in whose law I delight;
Who lovingly guardeth my footsteps
And giveth me songs in the night.
The words of the Spirit cut streams of enduring truth into my soul. Reminiscent of Jesus’ words, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," (John 7:28) I now picture an inward-outward river of testimony carving boundaries for faith and practice. The testimonial stories, musical and spoken, endure. Faith grows stronger as the
church sings and says what she believes!

As a boy in elementary school I was not aware that Fanny Crosby had been blind. I really embraced as my own testimony, "I know I shall see in His beauty, the King in whose law I delight." A personal eschatology was forming. I was testifying that I was looking for Jesus to return. I had little appreciation for the fact that Ms. Crosby needed someone to guide her because of physical blindness, I sang, "Who lovingly guards all my footsteps, and gives to me songs in the night," as a statement of trust and dependence. "Redeemed," Fanny Crosby’s song of testimony is richer, fuller, and cutting deeper and more meaningful boundaries into my soul than ever before.

Saint John assures us that, "They overcame him (the accuser of the brethren, Revelation 12:10) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." (verse11) Gather around a piano, and sing "Redeemed, at least one more time!"