Close to Thee

Close to Thee. Fanny Crosby* (1820-1915). Written in 1874 to a tune given to Crosby by the composer Silas J. Vail (1818-1884). It was published in Songs of Grace and Glory (1874) in three verses, beginning: Thou my everlasting portion, More than friend of life to me, All along my pilgrim journey, Savior, let me walk with Thee. Crosby said: ‘Towards the close of a day in the year 1874 I was sitting in my room thinking of the nearness of God through Christ as the constant companion of my pilgrim journey, when my heart burst out with the words’ (quoted in Young, 1993, p. 285). The hymn is generally referred to by the repeated phrase in the hypnotic refrain: Close to Thee, close to...