Blessed Assurance Fanny J. Crosby, 1873
3 verses and a refrain, meter 9.10.9.9.9.9.9.9, public domain, free to print and project.
The words
Verse 1. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of his Spirit, wash’d in his blood.
Refrain This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long.
Verse 2. Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
Verse 3. Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Saviour am happy and blest;
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Fill’d with his goodness, lost in his love.
Sing the refrain after every verse.
Words copied from New Baptist Hymnal (1926). They were published in 1873, so they are in the public domain in the United States, and your church may print them, show them and sing them without a license.
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The story behind Blessed Assurance
Fanny Crosby wrote Blessed Assurance in 1873 after Phoebe Palmer Knapp played her a new tune. Knapp was a gospel composer who wrote more than five hundred songs and tunes. She asked Crosby what the music said to her. Crosby answered with the opening line, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine," and recited the first stanza. Hymnary notes that the tune came before the words. The story comes from the two women's own telling. The words first ran in 1873 in Guide to Holiness, a monthly magazine that Knapp and her husband edited. They also appeared that year in John R. Sweney's Gems of Praise. The tune is named ASSURANCE. Ira Sankey carried the hymn through the Moody revivals in Britain and the United States and printed it in Gospel Songs No. 5 in 1887. Sankey also recalled that soldiers in the Transvaal War used the hymn's number in Sacred Songs and Solos, 500, as a coded greeting. The original second stanza mentions rapture, and some hymnals replace it with a stanza by Marie J. Post. Hymnary's commentary suggests Crosby meant the word in a holiness sense, possibly tied to her own blindness, and did not have the end times in mind. Methodist hymnals have printed the hymn since 1889.
Fanny J. Crosby
1820-03-24 to 1915
Fanny Crosby was born in Southeast, Putnam County, New York, on March 24, 1820. She lost her sight at about six weeks old after an illness and poor medical treatment. She began writing Sunday school hymns for William B. Bradbury in 1864, and her first hymn appeared that year in The Golden Censer. On March 5, 1858, she married Alexander Van Alstyne, a blind musician she had met at the New York Institution for the Blind. Hymnary counts about eight thousand poems, including more than four thousand hymns for Biglow and Main, and she used nearly two hundred pen names. Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology gives her birth year as 1823, which differs from the other sources.
Phoebe Palmer Knapp
1839 to 1908
Phoebe Palmer Knapp was born in New York in 1839 and died at Poland Springs, Maine, in 1908. She was the daughter of the Methodist evangelist Walter C. Palmer and married at sixteen. Her husband helped found the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and after his death she gave much of her inheritance to charity. She and her husband edited the monthly Guide to Holiness. She wrote more than five hundred gospel songs and tunes. Her tune ASSURANCE, written for Fanny Crosby's words, and her song Open the Gates of the Temple remain the best known.
- Hymnary.org, text Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine , read 2026-10-16
- History of Hymns: Blessed Assurance (Discipleship Ministries) , read 2026-10-16
- Hymnary.org, tune ASSURANCE (Knapp) , read 2026-10-16
Scripture in Blessed Assurance
The Bible passages behind the words, with the verse of the hymn that draws on each.
- Hebrews 10:19-23
- Titus 3:4-8
- Romans 8
- Psalm 40:3 In verse 3 of the hymn
Blessed Assurance videos
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Blessed Assurance - Congregational Hymn Temple Baptist Church, Congregation
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Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine! First-Plymouth Church Lincoln Nebraska (FirstPVideos), Choir
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Blessed Assurance - A Cappella Hymn A Cappella Hymns, A cappella
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Blessed Assurance - piano instrumental hymn Kaleb Brasee, Piano
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CAIN, David Leonard - Blessed Assurance (Official Live Video) CAIN, Modern arrangement
Videos play from YouTube, and nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. A video may sing different verses from the ones printed on this page.
Downloads, printing and slides
Sheet music files
- Sheet music PDF 112 KB. Words and all four parts, ready to print.
- Lead sheet PDF 90 KB. Melody, words and chord symbols for piano or guitar.
- MusicXML score XML 81 KB. Opens in MuseScore, Finale, Sibelius and Dorico to change the key or print parts.
- MIDI, all parts MIDI 3 KB. Plays the four-part harmony in any MIDI player or notation app.
- MIDI, melody only MIDI 1 KB. The tune alone, for learning it.
Practice tracks for each voice part, as MIDI: Alto , Tenor , Bass .
Chords and keys
Hymnals print it in D or C.
Questions people ask
Who wrote Blessed Assurance?
Fanny Crosby wrote the words and Phoebe Palmer Knapp wrote the tune ASSURANCE. Both date from 1873.
What is the story behind Blessed Assurance?
Knapp played Crosby a new tune and asked what it said to her. Crosby answered with the first line, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine," and recited the first stanza.
What year was Blessed Assurance written?
1873. It first appeared that year in Guide to Holiness and in John R. Sweney's Gems of Praise.
What key is Blessed Assurance in?
Hymnary lists D major in most hymnals. Some Baptist hymnals, including the 2008 Baptist Hymnal, print it in C.
Is Blessed Assurance in the public domain?
The words are public domain in the United States, first published in 1873. Knapp's tune ASSURANCE is also from 1873, so both are free to print and sing. Modern arrangements and the replacement stanza may carry their own copyright.
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