At the Cross

At the Cross.  This popular hymn was written by Isaac Watts.  Watts was born in 1674 and died in 1748.  He would become a pastor and wrote poems and hymns to go with his sermons.  He wrote over 600 hymns during his lifetime.  Today we still know some of his songs such as At the Cross and Joy to the World. We don’t know the story that inspired this song, but there is a story of how this song inspired many more songs. Fanny Crosby, the beloved hymnist, attended a revival meeting in 1851.  While there, the congregation sang Alas and did my Savior bleed for the invitational.  Crosby was so moved that she prayed “There Lord, I give myself away…”  She stated that afterwards she was a changed woman.  Crosby would go on to write over 8,000 hymns.  Many of these hymns such as Blessed Assurance and Draw Me Nearer are still sung today.  All of this because Fanny Crosby was inspired by the words of Isaac Watts