Fanny Crosby's fault apparently lay in the fact that she was too prolific a writer. Most of her songs were composed in a few minutes. Often the lines came as rapidly as they could be dictated. It was this circumstance that led Dr. S. W. Duffield to observe rather facetiously that "It is more to her credit as a writer that she has occasionally found a pearl than that she has brought to the surface so many oyster shells." However, before his death he evidently had altered his opinion, for he wrote: "I rather think her talent will stand beside that of Watts or Wesley, especially if we take into consideration the number of hymns she has written." Certainly there are many pearls among the 8,000 songs she wrote, and perhaps none has given more solace to broken hearts than "Safe in the arms of Jesus." Often the themes of her hymns were suggested to her by publishers or musical composers. At other times a musician would play a tune for her and ask her to write words for it. It was in 1868 that William H. Doane, the popular hymn composer, came to her one day and said: "Fanny, I have a tune I would like to have you hear." He played it for her, and she exclaimed, "That says 'Safe in the arms of Jesus!'" She went to her room immediately, and within half an hour the words had been written. Although Fanny Crosby never permitted the fact of her blindness to make her life gloomy, there are many touching allusions in her hymns to her affliction. "All the way my Saviour leads me" suggests how much a guiding hand means to the blind. The same thought appears in the song, "God will take care of you," especially in the lines, Tenderly watching, and keeping His own, He will not leave you to wander alone. There also are pathetic passages in her hymns that reflect the hope that some day the long night of blindness would be ended--in heaven. Here let me wait with patience, Wait till the night is o'er; Wait till I see the morning Break on the golden shore. That is also the constant refrain heard in the exquisite hymn, "Some day the silver cord will break." And I shall see Him face to face, And tell the story--Saved by grace. Nevertheless, she never permitted any one to express sympathy on account of her blindness. Once a Scotch minister remarked to her, "I think it is a great pity that the Master, when He showered so many gifts upon you, did not give you sight." She answered: "Do you know that, if at birth I had been able to make one petition to my Creator, if would have been that I should be made blind?" "Why?" asked the surprised clergyman. "Because, when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Saviour," was the unexpected reply.