Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour

The story of this hymn

Fanny Crosby, blind since infancy and the most prolific hymn writer of her century, wrote this in 1868 after speaking at a Manhattan prison service, where she heard a prisoner cry out, 'Good Lord, do not pass me by.' William Doane set it to music, and through the Moody and Sankey campaigns it travelled the world. In South Africa it long ago passed into the languages and night vigils of the church, sung slow and unaccompanied.

Where it sits in the service

Its pleading verses suit the beginning of things — the night vigil before the funeral, or the gathering hymn as the family comes in — rather than the send-off at the end. Many congregations will raise it unaccompanied, in their own time. Print the refrain once, and keep the spelling 'Saviour', which most South African hymnals print.

In the programme, list it in the order of service as “Hymn — Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour” with the leader or choir named beside it.

How it is actually sung

A Fanny Crosby hymn with a strong refrain, well known in Baptist and homegoing traditions and much less so in Anglican or Catholic congregations — check before choosing it for a mixed room. Five verses, usually reduced to three. It is a plea rather than a declaration, and it wants a steady, unhurried pace; taken briskly it turns into something it is not. It sits better in the body of the service than at the committal.

Printing the words

Public domain. Print the refrain with each verse; the congregation joins there even when the verses are unfamiliar.

This is practical guidance rather than legal advice. Reproduction rights vary by territory, by hymnal edition and by the licence your church holds — the church office is the right place to ask, and they answer this question often.