“Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross”: Fanny Crosby’s prayer set to William Doane’s tune

William Howard Doane would often bring Fanny Crosby a tune and ask her to write words for it. One day in 1869, he played her a melody, and she responded with a prayer: “Jesus, keep me near the cross; there a precious fountain, free to all, a healing stream, flows from Calvary’s mountain.” The hymn that resulted, “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross”, became one of the most sung of the thousands of hymns Crosby wrote.

Fanny Crosby and Doane

Crosby was blinded as a baby and grew up to become one of the most prolific hymn writers in history, writing thousands of texts. Her hymns include “Blessed Assurance” and “To God Be the Glory”. Doane was a businessman and inventor from Cincinnati who also composed music. He worked with Crosby on many hymns, often supplying the tune first.

Unlike many hymns, where a poem is set to music later, this one began with Doane’s melody. Crosby listened and wrote words that matched its gentle mood.

The cross and revival meetings

The hymn focuses on the cross as a place of healing, rest and hope. The refrain repeats, “In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever.” The second verse describes the singer as “a trembling soul” who found love and mercy at the cross, and the hymn moves from need to rest. The last verse looks towards eternity, asking to walk “near the cross” until reaching “the golden strand just beyond the river”.

The hymn spread quickly through Sunday schools and revival meetings in the late nineteenth century. Mission churches carried it to Africa, where it was translated into many languages and is still sung in congregations from Ghana to Kenya.

Why it lasts and recordings

Its simple words and easy melody make it suitable for congregations, choirs and personal devotion. The hymn invites believers to return daily to the cross, in ordinary days as well as in crisis, as a habit of life. Many gospel, country and choir recordings of the hymn exist. Many congregations sing it during communion services or Good Friday gatherings, when the focus on the cross fits the moment.

Doane brought a tune, and a blind poet heard a prayer in it. More than 150 years later, congregations still sing that prayer to the same melody.