DO NOT PASS ME BY hymn....Story behind it

Pass Me Not,

O Gentle Savior

Fanny frosty, 1820-1915

Pass me not, O gentle Savior, Hear my humble cry;

While on others thou art calling Do not pass me by.    

Hebrew notion of hell: a state of being alone, forgotten, blotted from memory—passed on, passed over, passed by.

It's a child's cry—Don't leave me. Don't forget me. Don't abandon me here alone—stretched out over eternity.

"Pass Me Not," one of the most popular evangelistic hymns of the Dwight Moody era, was Fanny Crosby's visceral response to a sinner's cry-—-her heart pierced with the providential prayer of one abandoned man living an earthly hell.

And now for the rest of the story:

William Doane, a wealthy entrepreneur, and Fanny Crosby eventually teamed up to make emotive if not beautiful music together—collaborating on more than a thousand songs. Their initial meeting-—-Doane having tracked Crosby down on a visit to New York City-—-led to the writing of "Pass Me Not."

Acquainted with Crosby by her poetic reputation and a brief correspondence, Doane was surprised at what he found

on the lower west side of Manhattan: a diminutive middle-aged blind woman living in a dilapidated tenement.  Crosby welcomed Doane into her attic apartment. He returned a few days later; Crosby accepted a challenge he placed before her: Could she—would she-—-write a poem titled "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior"?

Crosby typically wrote lyrics for a specific melody or as the muses struck; Doane's request-—-to "run with" a prescribed but tuneless first line—went without inspiration for several weeks until ...

Crosby walked into a room full of men whom society had cast aside. Criminals locked away in a fortress. Crosby, speaking at evangelistic services in a prison near her home, overheard one prisoner's desperate prayer: "Good Lord! Do not pass me by!" Do not turn your back on me. Do not ignore me, forget me, neglect me.

Crosby went home that night and penned four verses and a chorus. Doane subsequently wrote the tune appropriate to the sinner's memorable supplication.

Savior, Savior, Hear my humble cry; While on others thou art calling, Do not pass me by.

I see the promise of the prayer's answer in the Bible's first story: Adam and Eve fallen from favor, knowing their nakedness, not yet knowing to plead the Lord's mercy. They heard God passing by, "walking in the garden in the cool of the day," and for fear and for shame "they hid from the LORD God among the trees" (Genesis 3:8).

From that time to this, foolish sinners have futilely hid from God—and there under the bushes they have dug themselves a hellhole.

From that time to this, God has called out with one consistent question: "Sinner, where are you?"

What's traditionally called the sinners prayer ("Lord, have mercy on me a sinner") comes from another biblical passage, this time more clearly redemptive. Luke 18 tells of a blind beggar who hears that "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." With that news the castaway calls out, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!" Do not ignore me, forget me, neglect me. Heal me. Restore me.

And here's the end of the story. Jesus says to us, "Whoever comes to me I will never drive away.... everyone who looks to the Son and beheves in him shall have eternal life" (John 6:37,40).

Come out from hiding. Humbly ask to be accepted, and he will not pass you by. He asks the first question: Sinner, where are you? He makes the first claim: You may have left me. But 1 haven't left you.

Lord, sometimes I think you have forgotten me, neglected me, dejected me, passed me by. Remind me that you are the one who is always asking, "Sinner, where are you?"

..........

From the book: "Spiritual moments with the Great Hymns" by Evelyn Bence.