Who Was Frances Ridley Havergal? The Hymn Writer of Take My Life
Frances Ridley Havergal (1836–1879) was an English poet and hymn writer, the daughter of a country rector. She wrote "Take My Life and Let It Be," "I Gave My Life for Thee," "Like a River Glorious" and "Who Is on the Lord's Side?", along with many small devotional books for adults and children. She was a gifted singer and pianist and a fine scholar, but she's remembered for one thing above all: she gave her whole life to Jesus Christ, and she wrote so that others would do the same. She died at forty-two.
Here's the story of her life, her hymns and her books, and where to start reading her.
A rectory childhood
Frances was born on December 14, 1836, at the rectory of Astley in Worcestershire, England, the youngest child of the Rev. William Henry Havergal. Her father was a clergyman who also wrote hymns and composed church music, and the house was full of singing. When she was five the family moved to Worcester, where he became rector of St. Nicholas. Her mother died in 1848, when Frances was eleven.
She was a quick, bright child, but she later wrote that she was afraid of God and didn't love Him. She longed to know that she was forgiven and couldn't find peace. Her sister Maria's Memorials of her prints her own account of those years.
Coming to trust Jesus
The change came in 1851, when she was fourteen. A family friend, Caroline Cooke, who later married her father, asked her one evening why she couldn't trust herself to her Saviour at once. Frances ran upstairs to her room and knelt down. She wrote later:
Then and there, I committed my soul to the Saviour … and earth and heaven seemed bright from that moment
Memorials of Frances Ridley Havergal, Chapter III
Soon after, she studied in Germany, at Düsseldorf. She learned several modern languages and also Greek and Hebrew, and she knew long stretches of the Bible by heart.
Hymns and songs
She began to write verse early. In 1858, in Germany, she came in tired one day and sat down opposite a picture with the motto "I gave My life for thee." The lines of a hymn came to her at once, and she wrote them in pencil on a scrap of paper. She thought them poor and nearly threw them away. The hymn was printed anyway, and it's been sung ever since.
Her poems and hymns were printed as leaflets and cards and gathered into books like The Ministry of Song and Under the Surface. She also helped edit her father's church music after his death in 1870, and she wrote tunes of her own. She sang often at meetings, choosing songs that would point people to Christ.
"All for Jesus"
In 1873 a friend sent her a little book called All for Jesus. It showed her a fuller trust and a brighter joy than she'd yet known, and she gave herself to Christ without reserve. She said everything looked different afterward.
Early the next year she stayed for five days in a house with ten people in it, some not yet Christians and some Christians without joy. She prayed, "Lord, give me all in this house!" Before she left, every one of them had been blessed. On her last night she was too happy to sleep, and the couplets of her best-known hymn "formed themselves and chimed" in her heart, ending with "Ever, only, all for Thee." It opens:
Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee!
Kept for the Master's Use, Our Lives kept for Jesus
She meant every line. In 1878 she came to the couplet "Take my silver and my gold" and decided to send her jewelry to the Church Missionary Society. She wrote to a friend:
I have shipped off all my jewellery to the C. M. S., chain and all, so of course I never enjoyed packing a box so much.
Letters of Frances Ridley Havergal, Division VI: Letters, from 1876 to 1879
Books for every age
In her last years she wrote a stream of small books. Little Pillows gave children a Bible verse to fall asleep on each night of the month, and Morning Bells gave them a verse to wake up with. My King and Royal Commandments were for grown-ups, followed by Royal Bounty for the evening and The Royal Invitation on coming to Christ. Her last book, Kept for the Master's Use, took her consecration hymn line by line and asked what it means for the Lord to keep what we give Him. Many books came out after her death: her letters, her unfinished book for invalids, Starlight Through the Shadows, and a children's book on the names of Christ, Morning Stars, whose proofs she corrected a week before she died.
Her health was never strong, and she had long seasons of illness. She took them as from God's hand, and she wrote some of her gentlest pages for people who were sick.
Her last days
In 1878 she moved with her sister Maria to Caswell Bay, near Swansea in Wales. She threw herself into village work, especially temperance, getting boys and young men to sign a pledge against strong drink and speaking to each of them about Christ. She wore herself out with it, fell ill, and peritonitis followed. She suffered great pain, but her family remembered her joy. Again and again she said:
Splendid to be so near the gates of heaven!
Memorials of Frances Ridley Havergal, Chapter XV: The Last Week
She asked them to tell everyone to "speak bright words for Jesus." She died on June 3, 1879, at forty-two, and she's buried in the churchyard at Astley beside her father. She asked that her favorite verse be put on her grave: "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."
Why she's still read
Havergal wrote about consecration, and plenty of people have done that. What makes her different is that she made it practical and happy. She asked what it means to give God your hands, your feet, your voice, your money, your mind and your love, and she answered with real examples from her own life. She also never let consecration turn into straining. She kept pointing to the Lord who keeps what we give:
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
That's why Christians still sing her hymns and read her books. For many more of her lines, see our collection of Frances Ridley Havergal quotes.
Where to start
TheWay Library has eight of her books, plus her sister's life of her, all free to read. Start with Kept for the Master's Use, her own commentary on "Take My Life." For a month of daily readings, try The Royal Invitation in the morning or Royal Bounty at night. For children, read Morning Bells or Morning Stars together. To know her better, read her Letters and the Memorials of Frances Ridley Havergal by her sister Maria.
Our guide to Frances Ridley Havergal's books describes them all, and you'll find them together on the Frances Ridley Havergal author page.