Frances Ridley Havergal Quotes on Consecration, Trust and Joy
Frances Ridley Havergal wrote "Take My Life and Let It Be," and she wrote the way she sang: simply, warmly and with her whole heart. Her prose is as quotable as her hymns. Short sentences come at you with a question or a promise, and they nearly always end at Jesus.
Every quotation below is copied exactly from her books in TheWay Library, with the book and chapter or reading it comes from. A few of her books were printed from old scans, so now and then a word is spelled the old way. For her life story, see who was Frances Ridley Havergal. For a guide to her books, see Frances Ridley Havergal books.
Take my life
Her consecration hymn was written in one sleepless, happy night. Five years later she wrote a whole book on it, Kept for the Master's Use, changing each "take" to "keep."
Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee!
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Lives kept for Jesus
Take my voice, and let me sing, Always, only, for my King,
Memorials of Frances Ridley Havergal, Chapter VIII
Keep my silver and my gold; Not a mite would I withhold.
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Silver and Gold Kept for Jesus
Take myself, and I will be Ever, ONLY, ALL for Thee!
Kept for the Master's Use, Christ for Us
Kept, not only taken
Her great point was that the Lord who takes our lives also keeps them. We give; He guards.
Whatever you did really trust Him to keep, He has kept, and the unkept things were never really entrusted.
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Lives kept for Jesus
Kept for His sake; kept for His use; kept to be His witness; kept for His joy!
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Lives kept for Jesus
We do not want only to be kept from displeasing Him, but to be kept always pleasing Him.
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Moments kept for Jesus
We forget that faithfulness to principle is only proved by faithfulness in detail.
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Moments kept for Jesus
If people only would believe it, self-pleasing is always a failure in the end.
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Feet kept for Jesus
It is not our love to Christ, but the love of Christ to us which constraineth us.
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Hands Kept for Jesus
Giving every gift
She brought consecration down to hands, feet, voice and purse. She gave away her own jewelry to missions when she saw what "Take my silver and my gold" meant for her.
You will never be a terror to the devil till you have enlisted every gift and faculty on the Lord's side.
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Voices kept for Jesus
He will always keep the voice that is wholly at His disposal.
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Voices kept for Jesus
Our good Master gives us a reality and fulness of pleasure in pleasing Him which we never get out of pleasing ourselves.
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Feet kept for Jesus
The principle is exactly the same, whether we are spending pence or pounds; it is our Lord's money, and must not be spent without reference to Him.
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Silver and Gold Kept for Jesus
It is only with God-given treasure that we can enrich others.
Royal Bounty, The Opened Treasure
On Jesus
All her "Royal" books are about Christ the King and what He gives. These lines speak of Him.
O Saviour, precious Saviour, Whom yet unseen we love, O Name of might and favour, All other names above!
Coming to the King, Our King
The sin shows the love, and the love reveals the sin.
Kept for the Master's Use, Christ for Us
The bitterness of death to Him is the very fountain of the sweetness of life to us.
Starlight Through the Shadows, Things Which He Suffered
There is only one true hope, and that is Jesus Christ Himself.
Morning Stars, Our Hope
Coming to Christ
The Royal Invitation spends a month on the Bible's word "Come." She writes as if she's sitting beside someone who isn't sure yet.
A Father's love and care and a Saviour's gift of peace are waiting for you.
The Royal Invitation, All Things Are Ready
There is only one way of coming near or being made near, but that way is open for you.
The Royal Invitation, Come Near
If the Lord Jesus is praying for you, can you perish?
The Royal Invitation, The Proof of Christ's Ability to Save
Jesus Christ gives us life, not for trying, not even for asking, but only just for believing on Him!
Morning Stars, Our Life
Trust in the dark
Havergal was often ill, and she wrote her gentlest pages for people who were suffering.
I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, Trusting only Thee! Trusting Thee for full salvation, Great and free.
Morning Bells, Nineteenth Day
When the wearisome nights come, it is hushing to know that they are appointed.
Royal Bounty, Wakeful Hours
But He who knows our little faith never gives an isolated promise.
Royal Bounty, No Hurt
What is hid in God's hand must be out of reach of Satan's.
Starlight Through the Shadows, Thy Hand
But if we are willing to lean, we shall soon find that He is leading not only rightly (that we never doubted), but softly too.
Starlight Through the Shadows, Softly and Safely
He will deal with all the rest; you only have to deal with Him.
Starlight Through the Shadows, With Whom We Have to Do
A star shines out in the dark sky, and the darkness can not put it out, but only makes it all the brighter.
Morning Stars, The Bright and Morning Star
My Master, I will trust Thee for the rest; Give me just what Thou wilt, and that will be my best!
Kept for the Master's Use, Selections from Miss Havergal's Latest Poems
Joy and His presence
She came to believe that Christ's promise to be with us "alway" meant exactly that, and it filled her with joy.
Let us, then, seek not the stream, but the fountain; not primarily the joy, but that real and living union with Jesus by which His joy becomes ours.
Royal Bounty, The Abiding Joy
If we were always recollecting, we should be always realizing.
Royal Bounty, The Perpetual Presence
And "always" means really always, every single moment of all your life, so that you need never ask again, "Is Jesus with me now?"
Morning Bells, Twentieth Day
For little ones
She wrote for children without talking down to them. These lines are from her morning books.
So here are "Morning Bells" to waken up the little hearts, and to remind them that we must not only rest in Jesus, but walk in Him.
Morning Bells, Morning Bells
If we were always doing everything just as if we saw Him, whom having not seen we love, how different our lives would be!
Morning Bells, Twenty-eighth Day
Prayer and other people
The characteristic of this time was finding more and more that God heareth prayer, and specially intercessory prayer.
Letters of Frances Ridley Havergal, Division I: Early Letters, from 1852 to 1869
Intercession is the very safety valve of love.
Starlight Through the Shadows, Marching Orders, No. VII
When there are faults on both sides, it is pretty often the one most in fault who is the least ready to forgive.
The Royal Invitation, A Hindrance
Her last words
Her sister wrote down what she said in her last days at Caswell Bay. Again and again she said this:
Splendid to be so near the gates of heaven!
Memorials of Frances Ridley Havergal, Chapter XV: The Last Week
Where to read more
To read one book of hers first, choose Kept for the Master's Use. For a month of short readings, try The Royal Invitation or Royal Bounty. All her books are listed on the Frances Ridley Havergal author page.