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Frances Ridley Havergal

Writer of “Hymns of Consecration

 

Introduction

All my life I grew up singing the great hymns of FRH but knew almost nothing about her until I came across something that mentioned that she had been confirmed in the Worcester Cathedral.  At the time I was a volunteer “greeter” at the cathedral and so this struck my curiosity and I determined to know more about this Worcestershire lady..  The second thing that happened was that I was browsing in a used book stall and discovered an excellent book about her life written to commemorate the centenary of her death on 3 June 1879. This find furthered my interest.

Childhood

FRH was born in the Astley Rectory at Astley Worcestershire on the 14^th of December 1836. She was the unexpected 6^th child of Rev. Henry Havergal and his wife Jane.  She had three older sisters and two older brothers but she was the “pet” of the family.

Her father and mother were both “very earnest and spiritually minded evangelical Christians and their home was rich in holy influences”.

Her middle name came from one of her father’s close friends but all her life she rejoiced that her name was connected to Ridley the martyr who was burnt at the stake under “Bloody Mary.”

She was educated at home by her mother and by her father who eked out his very meagre stipend of £29 pounds a year by taking in pupils.  By the time she was two she spoke clearly and she could read fluently at four. By the time she was 7 she began writing verse. She picked up languages very easily.  As a young child she would sit in a room in the home where German was being taught.  It was realised that she was picking up the language. She then was allowed to attend the classes as a pupil

Everyone that knew her said she was a very beautiful and happy child with light curling hair with a bright expression and fair complexion.

Because her brothers and sisters were older than she her life was quite lonely for want of playmates her own age.  However, she loved her dog Flo – a beautiful black and white spaniel who was her best friend and she rejoiced in the freedom of being in the garden and woods that surrounded the rectory.

At evening prayers she always sat on her father’s knees when he read and explained the Scripture and from him she learned to sing many hymns- especially those written by Isaac Watts.  Mr. Havergal, a graduate of Oxford, was a great composer of hymn tunes and sacred poetry and music filled their home. To everyone around her FRH seemed a bright and trouble-free child.  However, she secretly had a heavy burden on her heart. The thing that troubled her was that she felt that she ought to love God but that she did not. 

At age 22 she wrote a little biography of her life in which she shared this child-hood burden.

“Up to the time I was six years old," she writes, "I have no remembrance of any religious ideas whatever; I do not think I could ever have said any of those ‘pretty things’ that little children often do, though there were sweet and beloved and holy ones round me who I must have often tried to put good thoughts into my little mind. But from six to eight I recall a different state of things. The beginning of it was a sermon at Hallow. Of this I even now retain a distinct impression. It was to me a very terrible one, dwelling much on hell and judgment, and what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. This sermon haunted me. I began to pray a good deal, though only night and morning, with a sort of fidget and impatience, almost angry at feeling so unhappy, and wanting and expecting a new heart, and to have everything put straight and be made happy all at once.

"This sort of thing went on at intervals, for often a month or two would pass without a serious thought or a true prayer. At such times I utterly abominated being ‘talked to,’ and would do anything on earth to get away. Any cut or bruise (and such were more the rule than exception in those wild days of tree-climbing, wall-scaling, etc.) was a reason why I could not possibly kneel down when dear M—- offered prayer for me. Then after a time of this sort, some mere trifle, a calm, beautiful evening, or a ‘Sunday book’ would rouse me up to uncomfortableness again. One sort of habit I got into in a steady way; every Sunday afternoon I went alone into a little front room over the hall and read a chapter in the Testament, and then knelt down and prayed for a few minutes, after which I usually felt soothed and less naughty. Once when Marian P—- was my only little visitor, I did not like any omissions, and so took her with me, saying a few words of prayer ‘out of my head’ without any embarrassment at her presence.”

All this while I don’t think any one could have given the remotest guess of what was passing in my mind. I knew I was a ‘naughty child’; in fact, I almost enjoyed my naughtiness in a savage, desperate kind of way, despairing of getting better, except by being made a Christian."

In her latest little book, "Kept for the Master’s Use," published after her death, she tells us how, at this time, she longed for some one (who did not belong to her own family -  to whom she would not listen, good and holy though she knew them to be) to tell her about Christ. She says good men used to come and preach beautiful sermons in her father’s church, but when they went home with them they talked of all sorts of other things, "and I did so wish they would talk about the Savior whom I wanted, but had not found. It would have been so much more interesting to me, and oh! Why didn’t they ever talk to me about Him, instead of about my lessons or their little girls at home? They did not know how a hungry little soul went empty away."

Move from Astley

Because her father did not have the permanent “living” at Astley he had to give it up when the son of the one who “had the living” became a priest. The going-away gifts by the people of Astley to Mr. Havergal, his wife Jane and his older daughters showed the great love they had for this godly family.

Because of his problem of poor health Mr. Havergal had to go into semi-retirement until he could be appointed to a place that was not too demanding.  After four years of semi-retirement and improved health he was appointed to the Parish of St. Nicholas in Worcester. (This beautiful church is still in existence on the High Street of Worcester but is now being used as a wine bar.  However a memorial to Mr. Havergal is still to be seen on the balcony of the wine bar!))  This parish had three times the population of Astley and many were very poor. As well as preaching there was much work of social concern to be done among the people who lived there, some of them in nearby alms houses.

Unlike the freedom she had in the parish of Astley Francis felt like a “caged lark” as her father described her.  Here she had not the freedom of the outdoors and life was even more lonely as one of her sisters had moved away to be married and her brothers were away at university..  She writes, “I had a tiny room of my own; its little window was my ‘country,’ and soon the sky and the clouds were the same sort of relations to my spirit that trees and flowers had been.”

Her mother must have sensed the inner spiritual turmoil of her little daughter as she said to her, “You are my youngest little girl and I feel more anxious about you than the rest.  I do pray for the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you and remember, nothing but the precious blood of Jesus Christ can make you clean and lovely in god’s sight.”

While she never questioned the reality of God she was rebellious. A sermon by the curate, Mr. Phillpotts on heaven and hell haunted her and her rebellion alternated with intense longing, “Oh, if God would but make me a Christian before the summer comes.”

At times found the church services helpful but other times she was spiritually restless.  Finally she plucked up courage to talk to the curate about feeling so irreligious

“Soon a sermon by the curate, on ‘Fear not little flock’ struck me very much. I did so want to be happy and a Christian. I had never yet spoken to any mortal about religion but now I was so uneasy that after nearly a fortnights’ hesitation being alone with the curate one evening when almost dark I told him my trouble saying I thought I was getting worse. He said moving and coming to new scenes was the cause most like of my feeling worse that that it would soon go off. I was to try to be a good child and pray, etc, et. So after that my lips wer
e utterl

y sealed

to all but God for five years.”

Mother’s Death

When she was eleven, after long suffering her mother died  Her mother had tried to prepare her for her death by saying to her, “Fanny dear, pray to God to prepare you for all that He is preparing for you.” These words were to stick vividly in her mind for the rest of her life.

She would not accept for several days that her mother was dead but convinced herself she was in a trance.  It was only as looked out of the window and saw the funeral pass out of the rectory gate that she realised the reality of the situation and wept and wept.

In losing her mother she became very lonely – a child that needed much affection – mother gone and sister married to whom she had been so close – also unable to express her feelings. Her mother’s death caused her to be more earnest in her prayer for faith.

Off to School

At age 13 she was sent off to a school in London, following in her sisters’ footsteps as they had also attended this school. She went to a school run by a Mrs Teed at Camden House – a school for girls from upper society. Mrs. Teed was a fervent evangelical and wanted school to be a place where the gospel was promoted. Preachers were often invited and Mrs. Tedd was a constant witness to the gospel.  It was during her time there that a revival broke out among the students.

FRH relates, “Mrs. Teed, the principal of the school, had a sweet and holy power. She prayed and spoke with us with a fervor I have never seen equaled. There were many Christian girls. I envied them. Mary was one. I longed to tell her how unhappy I was. At last I did. The simple, loving words of my little Heaven-taught schoolfellow brought dewy refreshment to my soul as she said, in French (we always had to speak French): Jesus said, ‘Suffer the little children,’ etc. It is every little child who ought to come to Him, every little child whom He calls, and every little child whom He embraces.

"After this I had many talks with Mary, but with no one else. To Diana, the goddess among my school friends, and whom I believed to be like Mary, not a word could I speak; though I longed to hear her speak to me as Mary did.

"I drank in every word I heard about Jesus and His salvation. I came to see that it was Christ alone that could satisfy me. I wept and prayed day and night; but ‘there was no voice nor any that answered.’ I shall never forget the evening of Sunday, December 8th. Diana, whom I loved with a perfectly idolatrous affection, had hardly seen me all day. For some time I had noticed a slight depression about her. That evening, as I sat nearly opposite to her at tea, I could not help seeing (nobody could) a new and remarkable radiance about her countenance. It seemed literally lighted up from within while her voice, even in the commonest remarks, sounded like a song of gladness. I looked at her almost with awe. As soon as tea was over she came round to my side of the table, sat down by me on the form, threw her arm around me and said: ‘Oh Fanny, dearest Fanny, the blessing
has come to

me at last.

Jesus has forgiven me, I know. He is my Savior, and I am so happy! Only come to Him and He will receive you. Even now He loves you, though you don’t know it.”

It was sometime after this that Francis came to a full acceptance of the gospel when Miss, Cooke, a teacher from the school, came to the home where Francis was staying and spoke to Francis,

“At last one evening I told her how I longed to know I was forgiven; how even my precious papa, brothers and sisters, all I loved were nothing in comparison.  She paused and then said slowly, “Then Fanny, I think I am sure it will not be very long before your desire is granted your hope fulfilled. After a few more words, she said, “Why cannot you trust yourself to your Saviour at ones? Suppose now, at this moment, Christ were to come, could you not trust Him? Would not His call, His promise be enough for you? Could you not commit your soul to him, to your Saviour, Jesus?”

Then came a flash of hope across me, which made me feel literally breathless, I remember how my heart beat. I could surely, was my response and I left her suddenly and ran away upstairs to think it out. I flung myself on my knees in my room and strove to realise the sudden hope. I was very happy at last I could commit my soul to Jesus I could trust Him with my all for eternity.”

It was soon after this she learned that Miss Cooke was to be her new stepmother. Following this there was another brief period of schooling where she developed a streptococcal skin infection that left her with a long illness and her eyes infected. She was sent to North Wales to recover and there she learned to love mountain walks.

The German Connection

During this time her father developed severe eye problems. So he, his new wife and Frances went to German to consult a renowned Prussian oculist. While there Frances attended a school in village.

She relates about this experience, “All the masters were so well pleased with the English girl’s papers and conduct that they honoured me with a Numero I - a thing they had never done before. In religion I stood alone (as far as I know) among a hundred and ten girls. This was very bracing. There was very much enmity to any profession, and I came in for more unkindness than would have been possible in an average English school."

Following her time in this school she spent next six months studying in the home of a German pastor. All of her lessons were in German and she found this time with her teacher and her studies to be a very happy time.

“While she was in Germany, she once viewed a painting of Christ wearing His crown of thorns, in the study of a
German divine.

pan> 

n>Under the painting were the words:  "This have I done for thee; what hast thou done for Me?"  Frances was deeply moved, and wrote the words to the hymn, "I gave My life for thee."  Thinking her poem was not good enough, she threw it into a fireplace, and it rolled out of the fire unharmed.  She kept it, and later showed it to her father, who encouraged her to use it and wrote the first music for it.”

I gave My life for thee, My precious blood I shed,
That thou might ransomed be, and raised up from the dead
I gave, I gave My life for thee, what hast thou given for Me?
I gave, I gave My life for thee, what hast thou given for Me?

My Father’s house of light, My glory circled throne
I left for earthly night, for wanderings sad and lone;
I left, I left it all for thee, hast thou left aught for Me?
I left, I left it all for thee, hast thou left aught for Me?

I suffered much for thee, more than thy tongue can tell,
Of bitterest agony, to rescue thee from hell.
I’ve borne, I’ve borne it all for thee, what hast thou borne for Me?
I’ve borne, I’ve borne it all for thee, what hast thou borne for Me?

And I have brought to thee, down from My home above,
Salvation full and free, My pardon and My love;
I bring, I bring rich gifts to thee, what hast thou brought to Me?
I bring, I bring rich gifts to thee, what hast thou brought to Me?

Return to Worcestershire – life with stepmother and confirmation

After his long stay in Germany her father’s eyesight improved and they returned to Worcester. She looked forward to seeing her brothers and sisters and old friends. Things had improved in the living conditions provided for them in that a new rectory had been secured, much more pleasant than the one to which they first came.

However, the biggest thing she looked forward to was her confirmation at the Worcester Cathedral.

“My feelings when his hands were placed on my head (and there was solemnity and earnestness in the very touch and manner) I cannot describe, they were too confused; but when the words, “Defend, O Lord, this thy child with Thy heavenly grace, that she may continue Thine for ever and daily increase in Thy Holy Spirit more and more, until she come unto Thy everlasting kingdom” were solemnly pronounced, if ever my heart followed a prayer it did then, if ever it thrilled with earnest longing oft unmixed with joy, it did at the words ‘Thine for ever’”.

She was also made aware of the fact that she had been redeemed with a price, and as such was no longe
r her own master. Sh

e had learned long s

ections of Exodus off by heart at school, and now a part of the twenty-first chapter, verses 4 and 5 described her own position. She was the slave, freed in the seventh year, and she loved her Master. She wrote,

I love, I love my Master
I will not go out free,
For He is my Redeemer,
He paid the price for me.

He chose me for His service,
And gave me power to choose
That blessed, ‘perfect freedom’
Which I shall never lose.

Rejoicing and adoring,
Henceforth my song shall be:
I love, I love my Master,
I will not go out free!

 

During her time in Worcester she was very involved in the work of the Sunday School, in the ministry to the poor and in visitation of the people of the parish. One writer has told an interesting story connected with the Sunday School ministry

Frances and her father had a deep concern for the education of children, especially of the poorer classes, to whom this was closed. While at St Nicholas, Worcester, Mr Havergal was approached by a local man, who wished to make a financial contribution to the Lord’s work in recognition of the financial success his business partner and he had known over so many years. They were bottlers of the local spring water, and had diversified into other areas. He was Mr Lea; his partner Mr Perrin. He wished to give £1000, and allowed the Canon to convince him to use it to build a school for Sunday teaching. Frances was one of the first teachers, and was clearly loved by her fellow-teachers and her pupils. She took a particular delight when, during one Sunday School parade, she saw a banner which read, ‘We will never give up the Bible’.

Irish interludes

Her sister had married a widower who lived twelve miles from Dublin. When visiting them she became involved in helping the local protestant school. She became a supporter of the Irish Society which supported [protestant and evangelical views. This interest in Irish missionary work would continue throughout her life. This stirred up her wish to be a missionary but this was not to be.

Teaching her sister’s children

In 1867 Canon Havergal (he had been made a Canon at the Worcester Cathedral for his faithful ministry during the years) retired and moved with his new wife, two daughters, and two spinster sisters to the tiny poor parish of Shareshill.  It was during this time that her older sister Miriam asked her to co
me and help teach her fo

ur children… FRH was t

heir teacher and governess for seven years 1860-67. By this time she had published some hymns and poems in a book called "The Ministry of Song." This was the beginning of her life’s work as a writer.  She also became much in demand as a singer. Though her voice was untrained she had been recognised as having a voice of high quality by a German professor of music

Her sister who had lived in Ireland moved to a large country house near Worcester and here FRH served again as a governess to her nieces and nephews. It was after this that she returned to her family home where things continued to be tense in her relationship with her stepmother.

“There is a good deal of evidence that Caroline was envious of Frances and made things hard for her. Later, when she joined them in a house in Leamington after her father’s retirement Caroline was to forbid visitors who came for help and counsel to Frances, because of the wear on the carpet in the stairs leading to her attic room!”

 More painful was the fact that Caroline, for many years later on, would not let France’s name or initials be used in publications on which she worked for her father.

“Throughout the period from her return from Germany at the age of seventeen to her father’s death when she was aged thirty-four the underlying conflict with her stepmother was a sad fact of her life.”

All during this time Frances had continued to write and her father had been delighted to see Frances first book of poems published in 1860. Frances’s first success as a writer was something she wanted to share with her father.  When she received a cheque for her poems, she presented him with a silk cal cassock.  Inside the cassock was found after his death, a piece of parchment that said, “The loving gift of my loving daughter Fanny, the first fruits of her pen, 1861.”  Two years later when she received a cheque for something ove
r 10 pounds she sent the 10

pounds to her stepmother ask

ing her to give the 10 pounds to “my precious papa to further any little object which he may desire.’  This time he replied, ‘I will keep all your love, but not the cheque.”

Owing to his poor health her father decided to retire in 1866.  When considering where they would retire they decided to make their final home in Leamington.  After her years of living with others she was looking forward to having a settled life with her family.  However, her many visits to relatives and friends besides tours abroad and various seaside and mountain holiday suggests that she felt unwelcome in Leamington just as she had felt at Shareshill.  Over the years Mrs. Caroline Havergal had become increasingly protective toward her husband.  Frances was allowed a room at the top of the house as a place where she hoped she could invite people who wanted to come to her for advice and counsel.  But her stepmother would not allow this.  On the pretext that it would wear out the carpet on the stairs and damage furniture she banned any such meetings. 

Easter Sunday brought the bad news that her father, who had been feeling better for some weeks, had fallen into a coma. Two days later he died.  Frances’s grief was softened by the fact that he did not suffer but she wrote to her sister, “I would have given anything but the inevitable costt of suffering to him for even one last word or look.  I need not tell anybody what he was to me!”

An important man in her life

Following her father’s death Frances became involved in a project that affected the family more directly. “Hymns Ancient and Modern” had been published, and was seen as serving the ritualists in the Church of England. Canon Havergal was recognized in his lifetime as an authority on church music, and had composed chants for psalms, hymns and tunes over the years. The Vicar of Perry Barr, the Reverend C B Snepp, a staunch Calvinist by conviction, wanted to publish a book more worthy of the Protestant heritage of the Established Church. He wished to include some of the Canon’s compositions, and approached Frances for assistance in researching the manuscripts. In this she met an almost pathological opposition from her stepmother, who refused to allow anyone to touch her deceased husband’s papers. In point of fact they had been bequeathed to Frank, whose musical talents were evident from a young age. Mr Snepp sought to intervene in order to ease the tension, but Frances asked him to desist, as it made matters worse rather than better. Mr Snepp then approached Caroline Havergal directly, and w
on her over. Work was put in han

d, and the manuscript was sent t

o the printers. Even this proved slow, for Mrs Havergal, who was by now involved in the project, was prone to holding things up for no apparent reason. Her most common failing was a refusal to pass on proofs when they were sent in. However, in due time two volumes were published, Havergal’s Psalmody, and Mr Snepp’s own Songs of Grace and Glory. It is interesting to note that Frances and Mr Snepp disagreed on some hymns. Anything that was in Ancient and Modern was out to him, until Frances pointed out that both Dean Alford and C H Spurgeon had included one, Bishop Mant’s ‘See the Destined Day Arise’. Frances was also involved in that most controversial of matters, the rewriting of extant hymns. She referred to this as ‘rewriting sundry queer old hymns’. This exercise made her aware of what she considered to be gaps in hymnody, ‘subjects no hymn-writer seems to have touched’.

Mr. Snepp also asked her to write hymns for various occasions but she said she could not write them unless they had been “given to her”. One she felt “given to her” was written on Ascension Day and based on Ephesians 4:8Ephesians 4:8

8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. captivity...: or, a multitude of captives  .

Golden Harps Are Sounding.

Golden harps are sounding, angels voices sing,
Pearly gates are opened, opened for the King;
Jesus, King of glory, Jesus, King of love,
Is gone up in triumph, to His throne above.

He Who came to save us, He Who bled and died,
Now is crowned with glory at His Father’s side.
From the grave arisen, nevermore to die;
Jesus, King of glory, is gone up on high.

Pleading for His children in that blessed place,
Calling them to glory, sending them His grace;
His bright home preparing, faithful ones, for you;
Jesus ever liveth, ever loveth, too.

Refrain

All His suffering ended, joyfully we sing,
Jesus hath ascended! Glory to our King!

She worked on the hymnbook “Songs of Grace and Glory” but also on another hymn book based on her father’s work. Caroline, her step mother did all she could to keep her from having any recognition in the work.

One writer has said, “It was the editing of Havergal’s Psalmody that caused the major problems in her relationship with her stepmother. Although Frances had done virtually all the work in connection with it Mrs. Havergal made a point of herself writing the Introduction and while Frances was permitted to add a section of Supplementary remarks her stepmother was adamant that she must not append her signature to it.”

Advent Sunday experience 1873

On this Sunday Frances had an experience that was to impact her life and her writing of hymns.

1873 was an important year for Frances e>, for not

only did she come close to death bec

ause of typhoid, but she also underwent a profound experience. Towards the end of the year she was sent a little book entitled All for Jesus! She read it, and was arrested by its contents. It set forth an experience and fullness of blessing that exceeded anything she had known. She had always had a deep sense of the love of Christ to her, and had been grateful for that. This was something else, and she began to see that there is a difference between consecration and total consecration. She desired earnestly to know, in the words of John 14.21, the power of His resurrection, even if that meant Jesus’ suffering as well. She wrote, “It is not knowing doctrine, but being with Him, which will give this.” She considered that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin, I John 1.7, and she was able to reply ‘I see it all, and I have the blessing’. For her this meant the passing of shadows of doubt, of worries over any matter, of utter devotion to her Savior, and of complete patience without murmur in all the troubles caused by her stepmother. Although she had only a few years left to life this season of spiritual blessing left an indelible mark. She saw that when a person comes to Christ to be cleansed, they are not to walk away again, but to remain in the fountain of His blood, always and ever clean. It is in this state of utter purity in God’s sight that we are free to trust Him implicitly, doubting nothing.

It is to be noted that though she believed in “full consecration” she did not buy into the teaching that one can obtain in this life sinless perfection.  She wrote “Sinlessness belongs only to Christ and to our glorified state in heaven.”

Although she felt hesitant about speaking freely of her own new experience she desired that others share that blessing.  It was in this spirit that she wrote her best known hymn.  She tells the account of how it was written.

I went for a lit­tle vi­sit of five days (to Are­ley House). There were ten per­sons in the house, some un­con­vert­ed and long prayed for, some con­vert­ed, but not re­joic­ing Christ­ians. He gave me the pra­yer, “Lord, give me all in this house!” And He just did. Be­fore I left the house ev­ery one had got a bless­ing. The last night of my vis­it af­ter I had re­tired, the gov­ern­ess asked me to go to the two daugh­ters. They were cry­ing, &c.; then and there both of them trust­ed and re­joiced; it was near­ly mid­night. I was too hap­py to sleep, and passed most of the night in praise and re­new­al of my own con­se­cra­tion; and these lit­tle coup­lets formed them­selves, and chimed in my heart one af­ter ano­ther till they fin­ished with “Ever, On­ly, ALL for Thee!”

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
T
ake my intellect, and use every power as

Thou shalt choose.

>

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

She had grown much in simple trustfulness. "Writing is praying with me. You know a child would look up at every sentence and say, ‘And what shall I say next?’ That is just what I do; I ask Him that at every line He would give me not merely thoughts and power, but also every word, even the very rhymes."

For years she had felt that she was called to greater devotion to the Lord. This blessing came to her through a tiny book called "All for Jesus." It set forth a fullness of blessing to which she felt she had not attained. She was gratefully conscious of having for many years loved the Lord, and delighted in His service; but "I want," she wrote, "to come nearer still’, to have full realization of John xiv.21." A few word on the power of Jesus to keep those who abide in Him made her joyously exclaim" I see it all; I HAVE the blessing!" "I saw it," she says, "as a flash of electric light, and what you see you can never unsee. There must be full surrender before there can be full blessedness. He Himself showed me all this most clearly."

She continued, “One of the intensest moments of my life was when I saw the force of that word ‘cleanseth.’ The utterly unexpected and altogether unimagined sense of its fulfillment to me, on simply believing in its fullness, was just indescribable. I expected nothing like it short of heaven. Thus accepting, in simple unquestioning faith, God’s commands and promises, one seems to be at once brought into intensified views of everything. Never before did sin seem so hateful, watchfulness so necessary, and with a keenness and uninterruptedness, too, beyond what one ever thought of, only somehow different; not a distressed but a happy sort. Then, too, the "all for, Jesus" comes in; one sees there is no half-way, it must be absolutely all yielded up, because the least unyielded or doubtful point is sin, let alone the great fact of owing all to Him."

Several events were to test her absolute trust in her Savior and his sovereignty in her life.

The first testing was that in 1874 she had counted on making a “literary foothold” in American which would help to support her.  Instead of the 35 pounds that was due to her she received the news that the published had gone under.  He continued to hold a contractual promise made by her that she only would publish with him. This was the condition of him first publishing her books.  She wrote, “Positively, I did not feel it at all, although I had build a good deal on my American prospects; now, “Thy will be done” is not a sigh but only a song!”

Also in that same year she returned from Switzerland after an autumn holiday.  Somehow on her return she caught typhoid fever.  For some time there were fears that she would die.  Prayers were made for her by many people.  She slowly recovered but it was a year before she was able to write anything but letters.

Though her relationship with her stepmother had always been strained it is important to say that her stepmother cared for
her very devotedly during this time.&

nbsp; One writer on this has said,

>“One can only conjecture that Frances’s helplessness brought out the best in Carolyn Havergal, whose care for her husband had shown her to be a dedicated nurse.”

When she returned to better health she started preparing an appendix to “Songs of Grace and Glory” that contained many of her own compositions. Within a week of sending the manuscript to the publisher she received world that the premises of the printer had burned down and all her manuscripts and the stereotype plates had been destroyed.  She had no copy of her work and so it had to be completely redone. She writes of her reaction, “I have been eager to get done with Songs of Grace and Glory’ that I might hurry on to begin work of my own choosing and planning, and so he is given me the opportunity over again of doing it more patiently and of making it the “willing sacrifice” which I don’t think it was before.

Time would not permit to tell all that filled her days.  She was bombarded with requests for speaking, for writing, for singing and for teaching.  She was active in the newly formed YWCA and the Temperance movement and many other evangelical undertakings.  She was known world wide and was swamped with hundreds of letters of those who wanted her help.  These she answered faithfully every day – doing 20-25 letters each morning and this before the age of the computer (although she had invested in an American typewriter!)  None of these activities kept her from serious Bible study from which she drew her own spiritual strength and was the basis for her output of helpful letters, songs, poems, books, meetings and personal times spent with so many.

All of these activities made concentrating on her writing quite difficult but there was another problem.  When they first moved in her stepmother made the wear and tear of the carpets an excise for banning all visitors who sought help from Francis.  Now she almost unable to use her room as Caroline would only permit Frances to have a fire in her room once a week.  Added to that, whenever Mrs. Havergal would go on holiday with her friend the house would be closed up and Frances would be left to find other accommodations.  Except for the time when Francis was very ill and Caroline cared for her there seemed to be no period that tensions eased between them.  However, Caroline became very ill in the winter of 1877 and grew worse the following spring.  Frances’s one consolation in her relationship with her stepmother was that in the final moments before Carolyn Havergal passed away she turned her first and last smile for many months on Francis. Her stepmother was laid to rest beside her husband in the Astley churchyard.

The home in Leamington was broken up and Francis and her sister Maria settled in a home near the Mumbles (near Swansea) on the Welsh coast. One writer has described that little haven that they set up there:

The sisters arranged a cozy study in their Welsh home; "My work-shop," Frances called it. By the
door was her motto, "For Jesus’ sake only,

" and her temperance pledge card. The portr

ait of her father and other relatives hung near. Then there was her choice little library of books on all sorts of subjects, her desk and writing-table, her favorite chair — a relic of the childish days she spent at Astley Rectory — and the American type-writer she found such a relief to her tired eyes. She was wonderfully neat and methodical in all her arrangements. Her many letters were all carefully docketed; paper and string in their own corners; no litter ever allowed. "’In order’ (I Cor. xiv.40) is something more than being tidy! Something analogous to ‘keeping rank.” She contrived a stand for her harp-piano, and there she composed her hymn tunes. Often she turned to the little instrument as a relief from severer work.

Even though she had been in frail health since contracting typhoid she never spared herself in her concern and work for others. People wrote to her on every subject one could imagine.  She longed for some rest or repose in her life but it never came.  Once she said to her sister, “I do hope the angels will have orders to let me alone a bit, when I first get to heaven!” Yet she always met people and wrote pleasantly even though she was literally wearing herself to death.

One day she caught a serve cold that caused inflammation of the lungs.  She progressively grew worse and when told that her life was in danger she exclaimed, “If I am really going, it is too good to be true.  At the very end of her life it is reported that she feebly sang one of her own hymns faintly but clearly, “Jesus, I will trust thee, Trust Thee with my Soul.”

Her sister Maria reported on the last 10 minutes of her life “She looked up steadfastly, as if she saw the Lord; and surely nothing less heavenly could have reflected such a glorious radiance upon her face. For ten minutes we watched that almost visible meeting with her King, and her countenance was so glad, as if she were already talking to Him! Then she tried to sing; but after one sweet, high note her voice failed, and as her brother commended her soul into the Redeemer’s hand she passed away.”

On her tombstone at Astley, Worcestershire, is engraved her favorite text, 1 John 1:71 John 1:7

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.  – "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."

As we look at her life there are a number of things that impress us and in which she has set an example to us.

First would be her complete consecration to Christ. Her hymn “Take My Life and Let it be” reflects what she believed and how she lived.

Second would be her passionate love of her Savior.  Her hymn “Thou art Coming, O my Savior” reflects the loved and adoration which she had for Him.

Third an style="font-size: 12pt"> would be her love of the

Bible &nda

sh; She diligently and daily studied the word.  She knew by hear the whole of the four Gospels, the Epistles, the Revelation, and all the Psalms.  In later years she learned Isaiah and the Minor prophets.

Fourth would be her habit of prayer.  Her prayer life was systematic and earnest. 

Fifth would be her kindness to one who caused her much pain and her unwillingness to speak against her.  Caroline Havergal had a pathological jealousy of her step daughter and yet Frances loved her and cared for her and did all she could to get along with her.

Sixth would be her love of people shown in winsome ways.  All who knew her loved her and were drawn to her.  Because of this she was used greatly in the lives of many people.

Seventh would be her concern for the salvation of all she knew and for their growth in grace and full consecration to the Savior.  She used all opportunities to point people to Jesus Christ and to say and do those things that would lead them into a deeper walk with Him.

Eighth would be her balanced life. This was seen in the way she handled money and in her common sense about how she dressed.

Of her 71 hymns in English (also 1 in French) and 3 hymn tunes, the following are among her best known, and are included in the 2004 edition of Christian Hymns:-

• Thy life was given for me - written in Germany in 1858
• Master, speak! Thy servant Heareth - Weston-super-Mare, 1867
• I bring my sins to Thee - 1870
• Golden harps are sounding - PerryBar, Birmingham, 1871
• Lord, speak to me, that I may speak - Bewdley, 1872
• I could not do without Thee - 1873
• Like a river glorious - Leamington >, 1874

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• I am

  trusting Thee, Lord Jesus - Switzerland, 1874

• In full and glad surrender
• Who is on the Lord’s side? - 1877
• Take my life, and let it be - Areley House, Stourport 1874