Frances Ridley Havergal was born on December 14, 1836, at Astley, Worcestershire, England. She was the youngest child of the family. Her father, William Henry Havergal, was an influential Anglican clergyman, who spent many years composing and improving hymns, being a noted poet and church musician.
When she was four she began to read and memorize Scripture. When she was seven she began writing poems. As a child she was morbidly afraid she would not be one of God’s elect. Her fear was so great, she was known for her bouts of depression and for always walking with a bowed head. In her teen years, she was reading the New Testament in Greek, as was her habit, and came to I John 1:7, where she noticed the tense of the verb says that the blood of Jesus Christ, keeps on cleansing the believer from all sin. The result was a powerful change in her life. She was converted, and the morbid fear was over.
Frances was highly educated and cultured in English and German boarding schools. She became a linguist, mastering French, German, Italian, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. As part of her education, she went to Dusseldorf, Germany. There in an art museum, she wrote the poem, “I Gave My Life for Thee.” As with all of her poems, before she ever wrote a line, she first prayed over it, and then gave God credit for the composition.
I believe my King suggests a thought, and whispers me a musical line or two, and then I look up and thank Him delightedly and go on with it. That is how my hymns come.
Frances lived a consecrated life and her hymns carry this important message. Whenever there was a spiritual or physical need, she was there with genuine concern. She was a frail woman, but an avid student, even as an adult. She memorized most of the New Testament as well as the Psalms, Isaiah and the Minor Prophets. She had a pleasing singing voice, and was sought after as a concert soloist. She also was a well known pianist, playing the music of the masters: Handel, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven. But she turned away from potential world fame and fortune, to sing and work for the Savior.
During her lifetime, Frances turned down several offers of marriage, and severed friendships that brought her keen pain to renounce, because she felt they hindered full consecration to Christ. Her devotion to the Savior was so great and obvious, it was said that when she entered the room, there was a consciousness that two people entered the room: Frances and the Holy Spirit.
Frances made it a firm rule to be at her study table by 7 am in the Summer, and 8 am in the Winter for Bible study. Her sister would beg her to do her reading by the fire, where her feet could be warmed, but she refused, saying she would not be able to highlight the treasures she found neatly. To keep this schedule, she refused to keep late hours and talks at night. Early rising and early studying were her rule through life.
Although Frances, being frail, could have used the excuse to avoid attending church, she wrote the following reasons for why she attended:
- God has blessed the Lord’s Day, making no exceptions for stormy days.
- I expect my minister to be there. I would be surprised if he stayed at home because of the weather.
- I might lose out on the prayers and the sermon that would have done me great good.
- For important business, rain doesn’t keep me home; and church is, in God’s sight, very important.
- Bad weather will prove how much I love Christ. True love rarely fails to keep an appointment.
- Those who stay home from church because it’s rainy frequently miss on fair Sundays, too. I mustn’t take one step in that direction.
- Christ said that “where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).
- I don’t know how many more Sundays God may give me. It would be poor preparation for my first Sunday in heaven to have slighted my last one on earth.
In 1874, she visited a house where the people were either unsaved or in need of consecration. She prayed that God would work and all would be converted in the five days she had to spend there. God answered her prayer, and the final night was spent in prayer and thanksgiving. “Take My Life and Let It Be” was the result of her time alone with God.
In August 1878, she was thrilled to give the Lord her “silver and gold” and to do so, sent her jewelry to the church mission house. There were about 50 pieces of fine and valuable treasures surrendered to the Lord’s work. She wrote that she never had so much fun!
She lived the same time the blind poet, Fanny Crosby, of America, being 17 years younger than Fanny. The two ladies never met, being separated by the Ocean, but they had high admiration for each other. Frances wrote Fanny the following:
Dear blind sister over the sea—
An English heart goes forth to thee.
We are linked by a cable of faith and song,
Flashing bright sympathy swift along.
One in the East and one in the West,
Singing for Him whom our souls love best.
Singing for Jesus! Telling His love
All the way to our home above,
Where the severing sea, with its restless tide
Never shall hinder and never divide.
Sister, what shall our meeting soon be
When our hearts shall sing and our eyes shall see?
Two of her publications include the titles: Opened Treasures and Kept for the Master’s Use.
When she was 42, she caught a severe cold, and her lungs were inflamed. She was told that her physical condition was serious and that she did not have long to live. Her reply to her doctor was, “If I am really going, it is too good to be true.” She put her favorite verse at the bottom of her bed where she could see it: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
On her last day on earth, she asked a friend to read her Isaiah 2. When the friend got to the Isaiah 2:6, where it says “I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee,” Frances stopped her friend, and whispered, “Called, held, and kept! I can go home on that!” Then later, as she was dying, she sang clearly but faintly one of her hymns, “Jesus, I Will Trust Thee, Trust Thee With My Soul.” Then she looked up and had a glorious radiance on her face, that nothing less than seeing her Savior could bring. For ten minutes her sister and friends watched her, and then she tried to sing, but after one sweet high note, her voice failed, and her brother commended her soul to the Lord Jesus, and she passed away. She died June 3, 1879 in Caswall, Wales, at the age of 43. Her tombstone has her favorite verse that was at the foot of her bed from I John 1:7.
A few of her many hymn poems were:
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Sources
Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 1982), pages 101-102, 239-241.
Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 More Hymn Stories (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 1985), pages 127-128.
Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 1990), page 10, 108, 256.
Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002; 2002).
AMG Bible Illustrations, electronic ed., Logos Library System; Bible Illustrations Series (Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 2000) “Called! Held! Kept!”
A. W. Tozer, The Tozer Pulpit (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 1994), Vol. 2, pages 102-103.
Edwin M. Yamauchi. “Cultural Aspects of Marriage in the Ancient World.” Dallas Theological Seminary, Bibliotheca Sacra (Dallas: Dallas Theological Seminary, 1978; 2002), Vol. 135, page 250.
F.B. Meyer, edited by Charles Erlandson. How to Read Your Bible, chapter 4. Heritage of Great Evangelical Teaching: Featuring the Best of Martin Luther, John Wesley, Dwight L. Moody, C.H. Spurgeon and Others. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1996).
W. Phemister, “Havergal, Frances Ridley.” J. D. Douglas, Philip Wesley Comfort and Donald Mitchell, Who's Who in Christian History (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1997, c1992).
