All the Way My Saviour Leads Me

The brilliant Fanny Crosby wrote one of her most beloved hymns when God answered her simple prayer for $5. None other than the great Robert Lowrey contributed the singable melody. What a lovely and meaningful hymn – let’s keep singing it in our churches!

Introduction

Welcome to another Friday classic hymn! Today I'm looking at a beautiful song. I've heard different versions of this done by contemporary artists, but it was my first time learning to play it using the old tune and just getting to know the lyrics. There's a very sweet story behind the song. All the Way My Saviour Leads Me is really a beautiful hymn.

What do you know of this hymn? If you have stories to share, if you have thoughts on the lyrics or the tune, pop that in the comments below. I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. If you enjoy classic hymns, you'll enjoy what I do here every Friday on the channel. Go and check out the 100 or so that I've already done.

The Story Behind "All the Way My Saviour Leads Me"

Fanny Crosby wrote this one. I've already covered Fanny Crosby's life story in three other videos - I've done Blessed Assurance, To God Be the Glory, and Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour. All great songs by Fanny Crosby.

She's well known and loved in church history. As a child, she was blinded, unfortunately, by a very incompetent doctor when she was six weeks old. Adding to the trauma, her father died when she was six months old. Yet Fanny was quite a happy child, at least according to her own writing. She started to write poems at a young age, and immediately would write about how blessed she was and how good God was. She was obviously well raised by her mother and her grandmother.

She ended up attending the New York Institution for the Blind and then teaching there after she was done studying. She married one of the other teachers there, although they separated after being together for a number of years.

Fanny became one of the great hymn writers of all time. They say she wrote between 5,000 and 8,000 hymns under various names, because publishers didn't want to keep publishing more material under her name - they thought it would be too much to publish under one name, so they gave her all sorts of aliases that she published songs under.

In American church history, she was very influential. Her songs had a strong theology and a strong, singable quality to them that really influenced the music of camp meetings and that sort of church culture in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The story behind the song is a sweet one. It was 1875 and she needed $5 and couldn't get it anywhere. I can't remember why she needed the $5, but she needed it and had no way to get it. She prayed and asked God to provide. Shortly afterwards, a stranger knocked on her door, shook her hand and left - and in her hand was $5.

This is what she said about this later on: "I have no way of accounting for this except to believe that God, in answer to my prayer, put it into the heart of this good man to bring the money. My first thought was, it is so wonderful the way the Lord leads me." He had led her in this way by providing for her.

She wrote this beautiful song, which was published quite soon by Robert Lowry in a hymnal that he was editing. Robert Lowry was a famous hymn writer of the time. In fact, I've also covered a couple of his hymns - Shall We Gather at the River and Nothing But the Blood. Those are great classic hymns. He saw this hymn of hers, put it into his hymnal, and composed a beautiful tune for it.

Fanny Crosby died in 1915, many years later. You can read her material online. Go ahead and look for her biography - it's free online. A number of years ago I read it and it was brilliant! There was a sense of humour to it, but she was very humble and really a wonderful person.

What Do the Lyrics of "All the Way My Saviour Leads Me" Mean?

The three verses in the song are each eight lines long. All the way my Saviour leads me is the line that starts each verse. That story of her being led - or of people being led to her, and God orchestrating things in her life - gives you an idea of what was in her heart.

What have I to ask beside? It's a rhetorical question. It's saying God leads, so I have all that I need. This reminds me a bit of Psalm 23 that says, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." I've got all I need, because he is my shepherd.

Can I doubt his tender mercy, who through life has been my guide? This God who has guided her through her life - remember she was blind - so perhaps this guidance she's speaking of is deeper. She's talking about how he has really guided her life and essentially been her eyes. His tender mercy has done it. That's a beautiful description of how God loves us - with tender mercy! Yes, he can be strong and firm and powerful, but he's generally tender and loving to those who have responded to his call.

Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, here by faith in him to dwell. Dwelling by faith with God means that we get heavenly peace and divine comfort. Jesus, of course, promised us peace in John 14 when he said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I don't give to you as the world gives." If your faith is in Jesus, if you're dwelling in him, then you have peace and comfort. Remember, the Holy Spirit is the comforter - Jesus called him the comforter. Your faith in Christ will give you wonderful benefits. It's not the reason that you believe - you believe for his saving grace above all - but with it comes peace and comfort.

For I know, whate'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. Whatever comes my way, good or bad, I know that Jesus is doing good things. Romans 8 talks about how whatever happens in our lives, if we are believers, God is working it out for our good - the good of those who love him. Whatever comes my way, Jesus is working it out for good. He's doing all things well and I can trust him. Isn't this beautiful to sing this sort of thing?

Verse two says, All the way my Saviour leads me, cheers each winding path I tread. Again, think about this blind lady. She knows that her life is a winding path, and that he's cheering her or encouraging her along the way. Maybe you're on a winding path. I'm sure you are, in fact. He comforts and encourages you, cheers you on your path as you walk. But you've got to walk it!

Gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the living bread. Lovely! Whatever trials come your way, he has got grace for you to enable you to get through. He feeds you with living bread, so you'll be satisfied forever if you are feeding on him. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord." Are you feeding on his living bread? Are you satisfied in your soul, because you feed your soul by partaking in Jesus? He offers you such satisfaction, if you would take it up.

Though my weary steps may falter, and my soul athirst may be. Yes, I am going to struggle. We're not suggesting that life is going to be brilliant if you just turn your life over to Jesus. No, there's going to be weakness. There's going to be exhaustion. There's going to be struggle. You're going to thirst at times in your soul and suffer even. But gushing from the rock before me, lo, a spring of joy I see. Beautiful imagery, referencing Moses striking the rock in the wilderness and water coming forth, and Jesus Himself saying that He's the living water. We can come to Him and then drink at the well, so to speak, and also have living water pour out of us. Even though we may be thirsty and struggle, we have streams of living water from which to drink if our faith is in Jesus. Isn't this beautiful?

Verse three says, All the way my Saviour leads me, O the fulness of His love! The fulness of His love - so high, so deep, so wide - his love encompasses all. It's a full, wonderful love. Isn't it?

Perfect rest to me is promised in my Father's house above. Yes. One day we will be with the Father in his house above, and it will be a place of perfect rest. Those who are in Christ will have perfect rest in their place. Beautiful.

When my spirit, clothed immortal, wings its flight to realms of day, this my song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way. When I awaken on the other side of the grave, having flown there on the wings of angels, I will be singing an endless song. This is beautiful imagery that also comes from Revelation, how all the saints who are in heaven are singing an endless song to the Lamb who has been slain - Jesus. She's saying, "I can't wait to awaken to that life and worship him in that way." It's going to be Jesus who led me there.

There's a little bit of evangelical theology here: she's not saying "I made it there by my own commitment." She's saying, "Jesus led me there, and by His grace allowed me in." This reminds us that we can't be saved by being a good enough person or doing good enough deeds. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone. We will only awaken to that glorious sight and be saved and be in heaven if we have placed our faith in Him and can say, "Jesus led me all the way, by His grace got me here, and His grace alone."

Conclusion

What words made sense to you, my friends? What words really jumped out to you that God speaks to you through as we worked through them? I think for me, the words about even though I'm frail and I'm thirsty, there's still the river of living water coming that I can satisfy myself with. It just reminded me I don't have to have it all together. I'll stumble some of the way, but I'll still be able to trust in him, even though I'm stumbling.

What about you? Share your thoughts below! Share your thoughts on this song. If you've got a memory of singing this at a particular church or camp meeting, share it. I'd love to hear what the song has meant to you.

We're going to sing it in a moment, and we're going to sing Lowry's version. There's a different version that I hear a lot of contemporary artists do, but I'm singing the old original hymn. Sing it with me.

I want to say thank you to those who support me on Patreon and who make donations on PayPal. This online ministry I do can only go forward if you are doing that. Thank you. I'm humbled that you would consider it.

God bless you, and may this song just remind you of his grace as we sing it now.

References

1.       Blumhofer, E. W. (2005). Her Heart Can See: The Life and Hymns of Fanny J. Crosby. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

2.       Crosby, F. J. (1903). Fanny Crosby's Life-Story. New York: EveryWhere Publishing Company.

3.       Crosby, F. J. (1906). Memories of Eighty Years. Boston: James H. Earle & Company.

4.       Lowry, R. & Doane, W. H. (Eds.). (1875). Brightest and Best. New York: Biglow & Main.

5.       Osbeck, K. W. (1982). 101 Hymn Stories. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.

6.       Ruffin, B. (1976). Fanny Crosby. New York: Pilgrim Press.

7.       Wikipedia. (2023). "All the Way My Savior Leads Me." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Way_My_Savior_Leads_Me

8.       Wikipedia. (2025). "Fanny Crosby." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Crosby

9.       Wikipedia. (2025). "Robert Lowry (hymn writer)." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lowry_(hymn_writer)

10.   "Fanny Crosby." Hymnary.org. https://hymnary.org/person/Crosby_Fanny

11.   "Robert Lowry." Hymnary.org. https://hymnary.org/person/Lowry_Robert

12.   "Fanny Crosby biography." Wholesome Words. https://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bcrosby8.html

13.   "Robert Lowry, Baptist preacher and hymn writer." Wholesome Words. https://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/blowry.html