Hymn Writers

John Avery Whittaker hosts a special edition of A Moment in Time on Kids Radio, broadcasting live from Odyssey Community Church while the congregation sings. Noticing that most people never think about who wrote the hymns they sing, Whit promises to introduce three people whose songs are among the church's greatest and best loved.

First, reporter Lucy Cunningham-Schultz takes the microphones to Wittenberg, Germany, in the year 1517, where a priest named Tetzel is collecting coins from a long line of people in exchange for papers called indulgences - pardons for sin. A monk named Martin Luther confronts him, charging that Tetzel is selling salvation and keeping God's Word from the people, who have been told they cannot read or understand the Bible for themselves. Luther has written a list of 95 theses, complaints against the church establishment, and he nails the document to the church doors even though Tetzel warns he risks excommunication. Luther answers with words from Psalm 46: God is our refuge and strength, so when the battle is the Lord's there is no need for fear. Whit explains that Luther's bold act started the Reformation, which opened the way for ordinary people to read the Bible and praise God in song, and that Luther himself began writing hymns for congregations to sing - including the one inspired by Psalm 46 that is still sung today, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."

Next, Lawrence Hodges reports from a train station near Ashtabula, Ohio, in 1876, where hymn writer Phillip Bliss is due to arrive. Major Daniel Whittle, the evangelist who tours with Bliss, describes his partner's gift for putting gospel truth into singable form. Then, as the train crosses an old wooden trestle over a ravine, the trestle collapses and the train crashes to the bottom. Bliss somehow survives, but his wife is still trapped in the wreckage, and he rushes back into the burning train to find her. He never comes out. Whit relates that Major Whittle later found Bliss's trunk, which survived the fire, holding the last song he ever wrote, "My Redeemer" - a reminder that even in tragedy we can sing of our hope.

Finally, Jenny Roberts visits Fanny Crosby, the Queen of Hymns, at her home in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1915. Aunt Fanny, as she likes to be called, has written more than 8,000 hymns, though she insists the Lord did it through her. She shares the stories behind "Rescue the Perishing" and the hymn she wrote after God answered her prayer for five dollars, and reveals that she has been blind since she was six weeks old. Jenny, who is blind herself, is astonished, and Fanny calls the two of them the fortunate ones - for when she reaches heaven, the first face she will ever see will be her Savior's. Whit closes by recalling that Fanny Crosby went to be with the Lord on February 12, 1915, her tombstone carved with the words "she hath done what she could," while the congregation hums her best-known hymn, "Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine."