[sacred songs]

It is obvious that Ms. Linden is more comfortable writing religious verse.  She was a person deeply steeped in doctrine.  According to Edith Blumhofer, Ms. Linden's understanding of Christianity was "rooted in Puritanism, developed by Methodism, warmed by the Holiness movement, and nourished by her Congregationalist, Baptist, and Presbyterian associates." (295)   Most of her gravitas comes from her faith, which is why I am saddened that the Ministry has redacted much of that from the agenda.

We shall end the hearing with these two sacred songs, which are our first glimpse of her happy collaboration with Phoebe Knapp, whom Ms. Linden met around 1866.  In the second song, "Open the Gates," Ms. Linden and Ms. Knapp quote an aria that is extremely well-known.

"Behold Me Standing at the Door"

"Open the Gates of the Temple"

[Leonard bows, indicates a bow to the violinist, the pianist, and Leonard and the Sacred Nine singers begin to exit.  You interrupt us as we are walking away.]

Performer Raybon, please stop!  I just cannot end the hearing like this.  Please, performers, go back to your places.  I have been devoted to the Ministry for seven years now, and I understand and appreciate its goals.  However, I'm afraid that you have been the victim of spin.

Cora Linden is not whom we have been talking about.  Cora Linden is only an alias, and the alias is not really an alias; it's a pseudonym.  You see, she wrote so many hymns (over 5,000 by her own estimation) that if she did not use many pseudonyms, then volume after volume of nineteenth century hymnals would appear to contain virtually nothing but her hymns.  The Ministry thought that if you were voting for an unfamiliar person, you would have a better chance of voting "no" as they did.  Against my own self-interest, I am going to tell you her real name, and in case I hadn't had the courage to do what I'm doing now, I arranged to have her real name encoded in the agenda.  If you look at the list of musical pieces, and read only the red letters, you will know her name. [Give them a second to read it.]

Yes, friends we are talking about the prolific Fanny Crosby.  Many of you may not know who she is.  However, she is a household name, at least in any Evangelical household.  I mentioned earlier that she wore a disguise and that she was embroiled in controversy.  It wasn't a disguise.  She was blind from six weeks old, after a botched attempt to heal an eye infection; therefore, she always wore dark glasses.  The only real controversy surrounding her was when her autobiography compiler (Will Carleton) failed to mention Crosby's publisher, who was a rival to Carleton, in the book.  Not much to see here, folks.

Crosby never expressed any lament about being blind.  She thought of it as a blessing (Lowry, 19).  She said she would not have been able to write so many successful hymns if she had had the distraction of seeing.  She also thought that being blind spared her from seeing many unpleasant things (Fanny Crosby's Life Story, Chapter 1).

Now go to “gospel songs.”