Music and Justice: Hymn Writer Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895)
It started with an empty space under her bed. From earliest childhood, Irish poetess C. Frances (“Fanny”) Alexander loved to rhyme. But she hid her poetic creations in that empty space for fear her father, a major in the Royal Marines, might view the scribblings as frivolous. He did find them, and happily Fanny learned her fears were groundless. Major Humphries delighted in the poems: he provided her with a treasure box to collect her work, and he eagerly read aloud each new creation. In time he proved his daughter’s biggest promoter, passing her poems on both to publishers and to the Oxford scholar, John Keble.
A Chinese proverb states; “Women hold up half the sky.” If women hold up half the sky, they should appear often in church history. But too often this is not the case. We need to learn how Christian women have fulfilled the promise of Joel 2: “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” For Fanny Alexander, hymns were her prophetic medium.
Fanny recognized the educational and economic value of her writing. In 1848, she published Hymns for Little Children, a work that combined her love for children with her love for the Bible. At the time, poor children were generally unschooled and labored long hours in factories, a reality portrayed in the musical Oliver. Fanny saw the God-given potential in all children, so she created a series of child-friendly poems to provide a lyrical gloss to The Apostles Creed. Three of these are still popular hymns today: “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” “Once in Royal David’s City,” and “On a Green Hill Far Away.” Hymns was a success, and with her poetry’s earnings, she financed a school for deaf girls—where they could thrive physically and intellectually.
But not all her life was this easy. Fanny fell in love with a seminary student; two years later he died suddenly from illness. Soon after, Fanny found herself in love again, this time with William Alexander, a minister from the Church of Ireland. Scandalously for the times, he was five years her junior. But they married anyway, and the Alexanders eventually had four healthy children, all of whom reached adulthood. Over time, William moved up to the highest levels of the church, eventually becoming Primate of Ireland. He did remark, however, that most people, including his own congregants, knew his wife’s song lyrics better than the contents of his sermons.
Throughout her lifetime, Fanny continued her justice work. She helped needy women in Derry, developed a nursing service, and frequently visited the poor and sick. Fanny reinforced the truths of Scripture with her words and with her life. She saw that creeds (and hymns about them) had value only if incarnated.
Today, we live in a schizophrenic world. While our world celebrates the demise of truth, it is simultaneously obsessed with data. We search for our “true” origins by having our DNA analyzed. We evaluate our schools by test scores. We decide our purchases by “likes.” But the Bible says that there is something bigger than data, that there is such a thing as truth, and that God is the source of it. Further, he reveals his mind through his Word, so that the way to truth is open to all—but narrow. The truths Cecil Frances Alexander wrote about are still true today. Her hymns were written with children in mind, but they speak to everyone, as long as we have a childlike faith that grasps their message. As “Once in Royal David’s City” explains, there is coming soon a day when “our eyes at last shall see Him, our Lord in heaven above.” Then our creeds will find confirmation, our acts of service affirmation, and our hopes fulfillment.
