Phoebe Palmer Knapp

Phoebe Palmer Knapp (March 9, 1839 - July 10, 1908) is primarily remembered as the composer of the tune for Fanny Crosby's text Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. In the well-known story of the song's creation, the tune came first, and then Crosby knew exactly what the first line should be.

Much of the biographical information known about Knapp has been derived from her connection with the much-more famous Fanny Crosby.  The two women were close friends and Knapp and her husband often provided financial support to Fanny.  Phoebe believed that Fanny's publishers, Biglow & Main, had not dealt fairly with her as they paid her a flat sum for all rights to each song they published (some sources say as low as $3 apiece) rather than allowing her to copyright her material and receive royalties (as Knapp's husband did for Phoebe's tunes).  The people at Biglow & Main strongly objected to Knapp's assertions, and apparently described her as "interfering" and "overbearing" in private correspondence. At any rate, Crosby was eventually given more favorable terms from the publisher.

Phoebe Knapp was also a social activist for several charitable causes, which she supported from the family fortune.  She once claimed that she 'care(d) more for the active movements of the world of society than for spiritual abstraction.'

The text of today's gospel song is not by Crosby, but by Mary Dagworthy James, who was a colleague of Knapp's mother, Phoebe Worrall Palmer, in the Methodist Holiness movement.

Wondrous words! how rich in blessing!
Deeper than th’unfathomed sea;
Broader than its world of waters,
Boundless, infinite and free.
Higher than the heav’ns above,
Is that everlasting love!
Higher than the heav’ns above,
Is that everlasting love!

Weary spirits, sad with toiling,
’Mid the sorrows of life’s way -—
Feel their heavy burdens lightened,
As they journey day by day.
How with quickened steps they move,
Cheered by everlasting love;
How with quickened steps they move,
Cheered by everlasting love.

In that house of many mansions,
God prepares a place for thee,
Where there are no clouds or tempests,
Where God is, there thou shalt be—
All the untold bliss to prove,
Of that everlasting love;
All the untold bliss to prove,
Of that everlasting love.

Mary Dagworthy James, 1878; alt.
Tune: EVERLASTING LOVE (8.7.8.7.7.7.7.7.)
Phoebe Palmer Knapp, 1878

Phoebe Knapp died of a stroke in 1908 while staying at the Mansion House, a resort hotel in Poland Springs, Maine.




Seven Years Ago: Phoebe Palmer Knapp

Six Years Ago: Phoebe Palmer Knapp

Four Years Ago: Phoebe Palmer Knapp

Three Years Ago: Phoebe Palmer Knapp

Phoebe Palmer Knapp

Today is the birthday of the prolific song composer Phoebe Palmer Knapp, (which we have often marked here) born into a Methodist family in New York City in 1839.  Her parents help popular prayer meetings in their home, amd her mother, also named Phoebe, was a well-known evangelist and writer.

Her long friendship with Fanny Crosby led to many collaborations between the two, with Knapp writing tunes for the Fanny's texts.  Knapp, a wealthy woman through her husband Joseph Fairchild Knapp of the Metropolitan Life insurance firm, often provided financial assistance to Crosby, who earned a confortable income from the publication of her hundreds of gospel songs but gave most of it away to charitable causes.  Fanny and Phoebe's most well-loved song is undoubtedly Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.

Knapp's spproximately 500 tunes accompanied the texts of several other writers (including her mother's).  Today's song appeared in her first collention, Notes of Joy (1869), the text by Mary D. James.  It was apparently popular at camp meetings in those days, with its refrain about waiting for the descent of the Holy Spirit,.

My body, soul and spirit,
O Christ, I give to thee,
A consecrated offering,
Thine evermore to be.

Refrain
My all is on the altar,
I’m waiting for the fire;
Waiting, waiting, waiting,
I’m waiting for the fire.

O Jesus, mighty Savior,
I trust in thy great name;
I look for thy salvation,
Thy promise now I claim.
Refrain

O let the fire, descending
Just now upon my soul,
Consume my humble offering,
Refine and make me whole!
Refrain

Mary D. James, 1869
Tune: ALL ON THE ALTAR (7.6.7.6. with refrain)
Phoebe Knapp, 1869

Mary Dagworthy James was another Methodist woman who had worked with Knapp's mother Phoebe Worrall Palmer in the Holiness Movement and wrote for some of the publications Palmer edited.

P.S. The photograph above is from the July 21, 1900 Saturday Evening Post, in which Phoebe Knapp was named one of their Women of the Hour.



One Year Ago: Phoebe Palmer Knapp

Three Years Ago: Phoebe Palmer Knapp

Four Years Ago: Phoebe Palmer Knapp

Phoebe Palmer Knapp

I've written about composer Phoebe Palmer Knapp (March 9. 1838 - July 10, 1908) before, and her most famous tune, matched to Fanny Crosby's Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. She probably wrote her first tunes to accompany the hymns written by her mother, Phoebe Worrall Palmer, but she went on to write tunes for texts by many other gospel song writers, in addition to her long friendship and collaboration with Crosby.

She and her husband Joseph (one of the founders of the Metropolitan Life insurance company) were very active in the Sunday School of their Methodist church, St. John's in Brooklyn, where Phoebe also played the organ. In 1869, she compiled and published a collection of Sunday School music titled Notes of Joy, and the music to 94 of the 172 selections was composed by her. The introduction was written by Methodist Bishop Matthew Simpson, who wrote of Knapp's efforts:

These "Notes of Joy" were prompted partly by a mother's love as she sang to her own dear children, partly for her class in the Sunday School which she loved to instruct, and partly for the circle of friends who gathered around the mercy-seat for prayer (probably a reference to the elder Phoebe's prayer meetings). They have been listened to and admired, and having been repeatedly urged by many friends, she has at length committed them to the Press.

In addition to songs and service music by Knapp, Notes of Joy also contains the work of Phoebe Palmer, Fanny Crosby and her husband Alexander Van Alstyne (they wrote the opening song, from which the collection took its name) as well as prominent writers and composers such as Robert Lowry, Josephine Pollard, Hubert P. Main, and Theodore Perkins. In her own foreword to the book, Phoebe wrote:

It is hoped that a proper regard for the eighth commandment may restrain all book makers from appropiating, without permission, any of the Copyright property of which the book is so largely composed.

Following this foreword, the notice of copyright for Notes of Joy is included -- in the name of her husband, Joseph F. Knapp.

This tune was written after Notes of Joy, but is sung here with this Lenten text by John Ellerton.

Giver of the perfect gift,
Whom we hallow in this place,
Hear the prayer our hearts uplift
Here before thy throne of grace.

Who can save us, Christ, but thou?
Let thy mercy show thy power;
Lo, we plead thy promise now,
Here in this accepted hour.

So may these, our Lenten days,
Blessed by thee, with thee be passed,
That with purer, nobler praise
We may keep thy feast at last.

God the Holy Trinity,
Grant the mercy we implore;
God the One, all praise to thee
Through the ages evermore.

John Ellerton, 1871; alt.
Tune: SARAJEVO (7.7.7.7.)
Phoebe Knapp, 1872 ?

More Voices Found: Margaret J. Harris

Margaret Jenkins Harris, born in Illinois on this day in 1865, is another woman hymnwriter and composer who is largely unknown today. She and her husband were involved in the Wesleyan Holiness movement, where she would probably have been familiar with the writings of Phoebe Worrall Palmer, and perhaps even her hymns. The Harrises also embarked on their own evangelism campaigns, and I like the detail included in her CyberHymnal entry: that they played an instrument supplied by the Epworth Organ and Piano Company (no doubt in exchange for at least a line in the program, if not a full-page advertisement -- scroll down for examples).

I've come across a few of her gospel songs in nineteenth-century songbooks, but I'm not sure any of them have survived into denominational hymnals today. Apparently some of her songs have been translated into other languages, so she is not altogether forgotten.

I long ago left Egypt for the promised land,
With trust in my Creator, in God's great guiding hand,
God led me out to vict’ry through the great Red Sea,
I sang a song of triumph, and shouted, "I am free!"

Refrain
You need not look for me, down in Egypt’s sand,
For I have pitched my tent far up in Beulah land;
You need not look for me, down in Egypt’s sand,
For I have pitched my tent far up in Beulah land.

I started for the highlands where the fruits abound,
I pitched my tent near Hebron, and grapes in plenty found,
With milk and honey flowing, and new wine so free;
I have no love for Egypt, it has no charms for me.
Refrain

My heart is so enraptured as I press along,
Each day I find new blessings which fill my heart with song;
I’m ever marching onward to that land on high,
Some day I’ll reach my mansion that’s builded in the sky.
Refrain

Margaret J. Harris, 1908; alt.
Tune: TRIUMPH (7.5.7.6.D. with refrain)

More information about Margaret Harris would be welcome indeed. (The illustration below is not she, but is from an advertisement for the Epworth Organ and Piano Company.)

Bishop Alma White

Alma White, born Mollie Alma Bridwell on June 16, 1862, became the first woman bishop in a Christian denomination (though she had founded it herself). Growing up in a poor Methodist Episcopal family in rural Kentucky, but too far from any church to attend regularly, she waited impatiently for conversion. The family went to tent meetings and revivals as circumstance allowed, and finally her conversion experience occurred at age sixteen.

Soon after, she felt that she was being called to preach, though it seemed like an unlikely profession. Settling on the idea of becoming a missionary, which was considered an appropriate field for women, she trained to become a teacher, later accepting a few temporary teaching positions in Colorado and the surrounding states. During this time, however, she married Kent White, a Methodist Episcopal minister, apparently agreeing to become a minister's wife and support him in his work. Her husband was aware of her other ambitions, and initially helped her begin by having her occasionally take his place in situations when he was expected to preach.

Over the next several years, in the 1890s, it became apparent that Alma was the better preacher, and that people responded to her in a powerful way. Kent White became ambivalent, sometimes continuing to let her substitute for him at revival meetings, when denominational authorities refused to sanction her preaching, but criticizing her at other times. This put additional strain on an already troubled marriage, but Alma came to believe that it was her husband who should be assisting her in her ministry rather than the expected other way around.

Alma found scriptural support for her preaching in a passage from Galatians 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. She pointed out the women of the Bible who were leaders or who testified to their experiences, women such as Deborah, Esther, Miriam, Mary Magdalene, Priscilla, and the Samaritan woman at the well; and also the passage from the book of Joel: "your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (she interpreted "prophesy" as "preach"). The oft-cited passages against women speaking in church in 1 Timothy 2:11-12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 she rejected as being limited to the specific circumstances in those early churches. She argued that if those passages were strictly applied, women could do nothing in church: no praying, singing, testifying, or even leading Sunday School. She was also consciously following in the footsteps of Phoebe Worrall Palmer in her adherence to the Holiness Movement within the Wesleyan Methodist tradition, but planned to go beyond Palmer's reluctance to assume the role of "preacher." Alma further came to believe in equality for women in all spheres, not only in ministry, and later in life worked in support of women's suffrage and the Equal Rights Amendment by publishing a magazine called Women's Chains.

Finally, in 1901, Alma made her break with the Methodist Episcopal Church, believing that it had departed from the teachings of John Wesley (and also that they would never ordain her -- in fact, women were not given full ordination in Methodism until 1956, ten years after her death). She and several supporters, including her husband, formed the Pentecostal Union with Alma as leader, and shortly thereafter she was ordained, along with three men and one other woman. The new organization, encompassing several missions that had been started by the Whites in the Midwest, began publishing a magazine called Pillar of Fire, a name which eventually replaced the Pentecostal Union name. In 1917, Alma had herself ordained bishop in the Pillar of Fire Church, which was performed by the Reverend William Godbey, another former Methodist and, not coincidentally, the minister present at her conversion many years earlier. By this time Kent White had finally left his wife, as much over their long rivalry in ministry as over diverging theological views (he came to believe in glossolalia - speaking in tongues - which she strongly rejected). He lived most of the rest of his life in England and Canada.

Alma had begun writing gospel songs, both words and music, a few years earlier during the Whites' revival preaching, and she realized the importance of new songs that would reinforce the beliefs and sense of community of her new church. Their first hymnal, Pillar of Fire Praises (1906), contained several songs by her among its 134 selections. The second one, The Harp of Gold (1911) had more than fifty pieces by Alma, usually both words and music, but sometimes one or the other, to texts or tunes by other church members such as her son Arthur, or her niece, Gertrude Wolfram. This song first appeared in The Harp of Gold, which was described thus in advertisements in other Pillar of Fire publications: Nothing to be found like it anywhere. 232 of the best songs published. Nearly half of these songs were written by our own people and were INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.

The joys of salvation are flowing,
I'm living in Canaan's fair land;
I came to the great swelling Jordan,
Crossed over by God's guiding hand.
My heart is now filled with God's rapture,
My days are so happy and blest;
I'm singing and shouting God's praises,
Oh how could there be sweeter rest!

Refrain
In Canaan there's fruit in abundance,
Fair gardens where olive trees grow,
I drink of unbounded redemption,
Where rivers of life ever flow.

The cares that had once gathered 'round me
No longer my pathway pursue;
I'm walking through vales of God's promise,
On paths that are sparkling with dew,
Oh, how can I tell of such wonder?
Oh, who can the mystery unfold?
The mountains are dripping with honey;
The bounties of God I behold.
Refrain

The days of my mourning are over,
And heaven is coming in sight;
The glory of God is appearing
O'er hills that are glowing with light.
The chorus of angels is swelling,
The saints of all ages are there,
For all who have suffered with Jesus,
God's riches in glory will share.
Refrain

Alma White, 1909; alt.
Tune: CANAAN'S JOYS (9.8.9.8.D. with refrain)

(Thanks to commenter Leland Bryant Ross for creating the sound file so that we all can hear this song!)

Alma White continued to write songs for her church, more than two hundred, according to obituaries that appeared after her death on June 26, 1946 in the New York Times and TIME Magazine. Two more hymnals were published for the Pillar of Fire Church during her lifetime: The Silver Trumpet (1926 - 343 selections), and Cross and Crown Hymnal (1939 - 565 selections). A collection called The Bugle Call: Hymns and Poems of Alma White, appeared in 1943.

The Pillar of Fire Church grew and flourished for many years, with churches both around the country and internationally. In 1907, a farm on eighty acres in New Jersey was given to the church, and Alma decided to move the headquarters there from Colorado. There they built a self-sufficient community, including schools and a college, a power plant, and a post office, which White named Zarephath, after the place where the prophet Elijah was sheltered and miraculously fed by a poor widow (from 1 Kings 17). The church acquired radio stations in Denver, Cincinnati, and Zarephath to spread their message, one of the first denominations to do so.

Now comes the tricky part. Though White was definitely a feminist who supported equality for women, and had defied convention in becoming a female minister, then a bishop, she was also a fundamentalist who preached against modernism, and in support of an extreme form of patriotism. She believed that members of the Roman Catholic Church, and especially Catholic immigrants, were dangerous because their first loyalty would be to the Pope in Rome rather than to their country (a view shared by many). In the 1920s she allied herself with the re-emergent Ku Klux Klan, apparently more due to the anti-Catholic and immigrant stance of that organization than to their racial views (she had worked with African-American evangelists in the past, and there was no bar to their membership in the Pillar of Fire). The New Jersey branch of the Klan, which was most familiar to White, downplayed the racial aspect, emphasizing their patriotism and anti-immigrant (Catholic) beliefs, as well as their support of "pure womanhood" (which she apparently misinterpreted to believe that they were also feminists). Many other Protestant churches in New Jersey during these years also supported the Klan, though not on a denominational level like the Pillar of Fire.

This association has marred Alma White's reputation ever since. Her support of the Klan had waned by 1930, though for some reason she republished some of her pro-Klan writings a few years before her death. When I came across The Harp of Gold online I wondered why I had never heard of her before, and why none of her many songs seemed to be sung in other churches (or were available at the Cyber Hymnal). I'd imagine this is partially because the Pillar of Fire was probably very protective of their copyrights and also that "mainline" denominations looked on them as an insignificant sect, but I think the Klan issue has also played a role, particularly in more recent times when modern hymnals cast a wide net to find "new" material.

I wondered for a time if I should even post this entry and present her work, or if it should be left in the past. I decided, helped by some discussion with Leland, that we know of White's distasteful views (only part of her story) because she lived in relatively modern times, and her church's use of mass media helped make those views widely known. In fact, many hymn writers from farther in the past, whose works we sing today, also held strong anti-Catholic opinions (as well as opinions against other religions and denominations not their own), but we are generally not as well-informed about the views of those writers. I probably wouldn't include Alma's songs in a modern hymnal, but I do think she's a fascinating woman. Her primary biography, Feminist Pillar of Fire: The Life of Alma White by Susie Cunningham Stanley (1993) which supplied much of the information in this entry, barely touches on her songwriting or the music and hymnals of her church, so I think it's a valid area of study.

The Pillar of Fire remains in existence today, led by the husband of one of Alma White's granddaughters. There are only six congregations left in this country, but several more around the world. They still have schools and colleges in New Jersey and Colorado, as well as their radio stations. A seminarian blogger visited the Denver church earlier this year and posted several current pictures, while the historical society of Franklin Township in New Jersey maintains an online archive of older photographs of Zarephath.

Phoebe Palmer Knapp

Composer Phoebe Knapp was born in New York City on March 9, 1839. Her mother, the evangelist (and hymnwriter) Phoebe Worrall Palmer made sure that young Phoebe and her sister Sarah were brought up in a strict (if unconventional) Methodist home.

At sixteen, Phoebe married Joseph Knapp, a successful businessman seven years older, and moved to Brooklyn. His lithography firm first made him a millionnaire, after that he was one of the founders of the Metropolitan Life Insurance company. The Knapps became popular members of Brooklyn society and were very involved in Methodist causes and charities. Phoebe played the organ at St. John's Methodist Church, near their Brooklyn mansion, where the Knapps hosted four US Presidents, Methodist bishops, and New York elites. These gatherings, gaining the reputation of a sort of salon, were somewhat different from the evangelical ones for which her mother was known.

Phoebe's musical interests always included composing, and she wrote tunes for several of her mother's hymns. Phoebe the mother edited a monthly magazine, the Guide to Holiness, which included a new hymn in each issue and many of the tunes were by daughter Knapp. She went on to compose for many of the most well-known gospel song writers of the day. Fanny Crosby was a dear friend, and the two women often worked together in the elaborate music room that Joseph Knapp had built for his wife.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine will always be their most popular song. This is another Phoebe & Fanny collaboration which also happens to be appropriate for Lent.

“Nearer the cross!” my heart can say
I am coming nearer,
Nearer the cross from day to day,
I am coming nearer;
Nearer the cross where Jesus died,
Nearer the fountain’s crimson tide,
Nearer my Savior’s wounded side,
I am coming nearer,
I am coming nearer.

Nearer the Christian’s mercy seat,
I am coming nearer;
Feasting my soul on manna sweet
I am coming nearer;
Stronger in faith, more clear I see
Jesus, who gave himself for me;
Nearer to Christ I still would be,
Still I’m coming nearer
Still I’m coming nearer.

Nearer in prayer my hope aspires,
I am coming nearer;
Deeper the love my soul desires,
I am coming nearer;
Nearer the end of toil and care,
Nearer the joy I long to share,
Nearer the crown I soon shall wear;
I am coming nearer;
I am coming nearer.

Fanny Crosby, 19th c.; alt.
Tune: NEARER THE CROSS (8.6.8.6.8.8.8.6.6.)
Phoebe Knapp, 19th c.

Phoebe is supposed to have composed around five hundred tunes for gospel songs, some parlor music, and Prince of Peace, a cantata. She also edited two collections of songs for Sunday schools, with the first one, Notes of Joy for the Sabbath-school (1869), containing one hundred of her own pieces. A Woman of the Century (1893), a collection of biographical sketches by Frances W. Willard, proclaims of Knapp "She writes music, not as a profession, but as an inspiration." However, business-minded husband Joseph made sure that all her music was copyrighted.

I've located only sixteen of her tunes thus far, though that's twice as many as you can see at the Cyber Hymnal site linked above. Still looking for more!

Phoebe Worrall Palmer

Methodist evangelist Phoebe Worrall Palmer was born on this day in New York City in 1807. She is recognized as one of the founders of the Holiness Movement because of her public speaking and popular books, one of which, The Way of Holiness (1843), sold more than 20,000 copies in its first six years and is still in print today.

Phoebe and her sister began having Tuesday afternoon prayer meetings, which grew over the years to encompass both women and men, including professors, editors, and bishops. The sisters helped found a magazine, The Guide to Holiness, and Phoebe's articles there became her books when collected. She eventually became the editor, and wrote so many articles that new ones continued to be published for some time after her death in 1874. She traveled and spoke about her religious experience and her perfectionist theology. However, she would not call when she did "preaching," as she believed that was something that women should not do.

She wrote hymns as part of her desire to instruct others in her beliefs. Her daughter (and namesake), growing up in this environment of celebrity, and having some musical skill of her own, eventually composed some tunes for her mother's texts, including one that appeared in several 19th century hymnals, The Cleansing Wave. That daughter became better known for composing gospel songs as Phoebe Palmer Knapp, collaborating with Fanny Crosby on Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine and with many other songwriters of the day.

In 1870 Phoebe Palmer and her husband were about to move into a new mansion in New York. She awoke one morning with the desire to write a hymn to dedicate the new house, where their Tuesday afternoon meetings would continue. It was published in a biography that appeared in 1876, Life and Letters of Mrs. Phoebe Palmer, edited by the Reverend Richard Wheatley.

Sung at the Tuesday Afternoon Meeting, November 29, 1870, on the occasion of the Dedication of the House, 316 East 15th Street, opposite Stuyvesant Park.

O thou Most High! in heaven adored,
While angels bow with veiled face,
And cry, O Holy, Holy Lord!
Behold! we worship from this place.

Though Zion's gates thou lovest best,
In wondrous grace thou dost ordain
That Jacob's dwellings shall be blest,
And in them thou dost live and reign.

And now, O God, behold and see!
Thy people in thy name have met
To dedicate this house to thee;
Here let thy holy seat be set.

And in this house wilt thou abide:
We consecrate it to thy name;
In every room and heart reside,
And here thy hallowing grace proclaim.

Head of the Church! O wilt thou still
Thy Church in this our house behold,
With greater grace thy people fill,
Give power beyond the days of old.

Here let the Holy Ghost abide,
And Pentecostal gifts be given;
And Christ -- the living Christ, reside
In human hearts made fit for heaven.

Phoebe W. Palmer, 1870; alt.
Tune: HAMBURG (L.M.)
Lowell Mason, 1824

The tune that they actually sang that day was not recorded. If they only had words and no music they would have used a familiar tune, and this one by Lowell Mason, often called the "father of American church music" is a (remote) possibility. But we must remember that there were many more hymn tunes that would have been familiar to Palmer's attendees, so it's really impossible to know. They could have had a leaflet printed for the occasion with the tune -- perhaps even a new one by Phoebe Knapp. I will be on the lookout for a Knapp tune in Long Meter (four lines of eight syllables) -- have not seen one yet but I've only found about a dozen of the many she is supposed to have written. And then, it's also possible Palmer's text was not sung at all -- sometimes hymns were simply recited.