The Church Missionary Society Memorial Fund
Tue following letter appeared in The Record, in July, 1879, suggesting the “Frances Ridley Havergal Church Missionary Memorial Fund.”
To the Lditor of The Record.
Sir, — I am but giving expression to the thoughts of others when I venture to suggest an ‘‘In Memoriam Thank Offering” from the tens of thousands of readers whose hearts have so often been gladdened and stimulated to labour for the Master by the ‘‘ sweet singer, and yet strong,” who is now
“Among the choir of Paradise,
A singer evermore.”
Many objects dear to her in life, to which these offerings could be devoted, might easily be named; but perhaps the most fitting and *
appropriate, and one that will assuredly commend itself to all who sympathise with her in her loyal devotion to the ‘‘ King’s Marching Orders,” would be a special Church Missionary Memorial Fund.
Those who knew her best can best testify to the deep interest ever taken by our beloved friend in the God-commanded work of missions. Early associations led her to identify herself specially with the work of the Church Missionary Society. When only a child, ‘‘the golden-haired fairy of the home circle,” as the youngest member of the family, it was her Sunday morning delight to carry the missionary plate round to all assembled for prayers, for the willingly offered pence. When six or seven years old she had her first missionary-box, and for years, especially at St. Nicholas’, Worcester, energetically and systematically she obtained weekly and monthly contributions. It was one of her special treats to hear her father tell of his pioneering deputation visits to the far end of Cornwall and Devonshire, where, as early as 1822-24, he was the very first to preach and speak for the Church Missionary Society. In 1850 she writes; ‘‘Our Church Missionary Association has increased to over
440. For myself, Ihave nearly thirty subscribers, half quarterly and half monthly; and though the sum in some cases is small, I think that is a pretty tolerable list. But I want to have more internal missionary spirit, it is more natural to me to work than to feel. Ido more collecting than praying! Oh, to be like im in this as in all other things. I have at last hit upon a new device, and earned something by my brains for my pet Church Missionary Society. Some half-crown pocket books advertised so many copies gratis as prizes for the best poetical enigmas. So I wrote sixteen of all sorts, signed Zoide and Sabrina, and have just received six copies. I reserved one copy, and have sold all the rest for the Society.”
Her self denying life, pleasing others and so pleasing herself, found her ever ‘‘ready to give” to missionary work. And truly she gave that which ‘‘cost her something.”’ In a letter from her sister I read the following: ‘‘Just this time last year, in July, she came to me with that light in her eye which always told of some bright thought. ‘Marie! It has come over me this morning that I shall send all my jewellery to the Church Missionary Society. I wrote long ago;
Take my silver and my gold; Not a mite would I withhold,” And I really have given every shilling I could to God’s service, but I never thought of my jewels.? I pleaded in vain the pleasure of leaving them to others. ‘No,’ she said, ‘my King wants them, and they must go; delightful to have anything to give Him. I can’t go to India, but I can help to send some one.’ The massive gold chain she had worn for four years, the gift for some literary toil, she took off her neck, substituting a very old one. A friend at once gave her a handsome price for her chain, and she brought the gold to me, rattling the sovereigns merrily in her hands. ‘ There, this goes at once to the Church Missionary Society, and I shall make it up to £50, which I long wanted to give.’ Though we were very busy, she had all her jewellery cleaned and packed, fifty-three articles (even her useful gold pencils), in a beautiful casket, and sent up to London to the care of the Rev. H. Wright.”
It may be the offering of ‘‘ jewellery” is not the sacrifice required from many for the King; but some offering of a grateful heart will, we think, be prompted in the case of thousands who will feel it a high privilege thus far to be associated in spirit with one of the noblest and truest hearted and most loyal of His servants.
I refrain from doing more than suggest. I must leave to others the details of any plan that may be adopted; only I think it would be well from the first to have a definite plan. The translation and circulation of selected portions of her works in the mission field would be a distinct object of great interest to many. Doubtless the Rev. H. Wright would be able to give information which would guide action here. Palestine has been named as a special field, but perhaps India or South Africa might awaken more general interest. Some will remember her thrillingly earnest appeal for ‘‘ Our Hindoo Sisters”:
**Oh! for a fiery scroll, and a trumpet of thunder might, To startle the silken dreams of English women at ease, Circled with peace and joy, and dwelling where truth and light Are shining fair as the stars, and free as the western breeze!
Oh! for a clarion voice to reach and stir their nest With the story of sisters’ woes, gathering day by day, Over the Indian homes (sepulchres rather than rest), Till they rouse in the strength of the Lord, and roll the stone away.
Is it too great a thing? Will not ome rise and go, Laying her joys aside, as the Master laid them down? Seeking His lone and lost in the veiled abodes of woe,
Winning His Indian gems to shine in His glorious crown!”
It will be interesting to mention that one item of Miss Havergal’s “List of Work for 1879” is given thus: ‘‘ To complete my set of ‘Marching Orders’ for the Church Missionary Gleaner.” The last paper, in the June number of the G/zaner, contained the following passage.
‘* What an honour to be one of the ‘few’ forerunners of the King, the herald of a silent yet real and mighty advent of ‘the very God of very God.’ Because the harvest is great and the labourers few, the Lord Jesus said, ‘Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest.’ If the fact remains, the command remains. And the fact does indeed remain, and we have no excuse in not knowing it. We know how few the labourers are. We cannot say, ‘ Behold! we knew it not.’ The need is recognised, and the Lord has put the supply within the reach of the voice of prayer and the hand of faith. He has told us what to do, and so now the responsibility rests upon us. Perhaps we read these pages, and we sorrow a little for the burden of the King of princes, and wish the accounts were more glowing. But we do not turn the passing emotion into obedient and faithful and purposeful prayer, and so our sluggard soul desireth and hath nothing. ‘ He shall not fail nor be discouraged’; but if we fail as His ‘helpers’ in this easiest and most graciously appointed share of His glorious work, how shall we hope to share in our Master’s harvest joy, and what claim shall we have to join in the great har-~ vest Hallelujah?”; Iam, Sir, yours faithfully, Blackheath, CHARLES BULLOCK.
The response to the suggestions thus made was immediate and most generous. The Rey. Preberidary Wright, the Hon. Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, at once took a deep interest in the proposal, and the Committee of the Society passed the following minute, inserted in the Church Missionary Gleaner for September, 1879.
GENERAL COMMITTEE, uly 22.
The Secretaries stated that it had been determined by the friends of the late Miss Frances Ridley Havergal.to raise a memorial fund to be called ‘‘The Frances Ridley Havergal Missionary Fund,” with the intention of handing it, when raised, to the Committee of the Society, to be expended in the training of Native Bible women, and in the translation and circulation in India, (and, should the fund allow, other mission fields,) of suitable and selected portions of Miss Havergal’s books. The Committee expressed the pleasure it would give them to administer the Fund if entrusted to them, and their satisfaction that the name of Miss Frances Ridley Havergal, whose devoted interest in the Society’s work was so marked in her lifeee
time, should be permanently inscribed on the records of the Society, and her loving loyal spirit be thus by God’s blessing perpetuated in its Missions.
The Day of Days for February 1880 contained the following acknowledgment of contributions received towards the Fund.
THE FRANCES. RIDLEY HAVERGAL ‘*CHURCH
MISSIONARY MEMORIAL FUND.”
WE wish it were possible to convey to others the feeling produced in our own mind by the widespread and generous response accorded to the proposed Church Missionary Fund in memory of Frances Ridley Havergal.
The amount received now exceeds £1,900. But even this noble sum cannot be rightly estimated, unless it is borne in mind that it represents the distinct offerings, as nearly as we can calculate, of some twelve thousand contributors. Many also of the letters accompanying the contributions indicate that even the smallest offerings ‘have cost” the givers ‘‘something,” and are literally expressions of heart-gratitude to ‘‘the sweet singer,” who stimulated so many to the consecrated life, and whose voice, happily, in her Royal books, still —
“Rings on with holy influence deep and strong.”
We venture to express the hope that others will yet ‘‘ cast in their mite.” It should be borne in mind that the twofold object of the Fund affords scope for the expenditure of almost any amount that could be raised. The openings for the employment of native Bible women in India might indeed almost engross the funds of a Society; and the circulation of translated and selected portions of F. R. H.’s writings, in India and other mission fields, would well employ the amount already raised.
As one indication only of the need of Christian literature in our mission fields, and the special fitness of selections from F. R. H.’s books for circulation, the Rev, Prebendary Wright says: ‘‘ The following extract from a letter just received from one of our missionaries in Ceylon shows that there need be no fear of our being able to put the F. R. H. Memorial Fund to good account : — ‘I have begun to translate Miss Havergal’s ‘‘ My King” into Singhalese, and ask for a grant to print and bind the same. I intend to translate her other works.’”
The Christian Vernacular Education Society for India has also just issued a circular, stating that ‘‘for lack of Christian literature in the mother tongues (the sixteen.native languages spoken by the 240,000,000 of our fellow subjects in India) the work of the missionary and Zenana teacher is greatly crippled, and parents have been known to object to their daughters acquiring the art of reading, from the non-existence of a pure vernacular literature to interest and instruct them, which induces them to exercise their new power in perusing the polluting publications of the native press.”
We hope ‘‘other mission fields” (European, African, and American, as well as Asiatic) will also be reached by F. R. H.’s translated books; but even confining ourselves to India, it is sufficiently clear that further offerings to the Memorial Fund may well and wisely be made by those who have not already contributed.
Contributions can be sent to the Rev. CHARLES BULLOCK, Hon.” Sec. of the Fund, 7, The Paragon, Blackheath, S.E. Cheques and P.O. Orders payable to C. DouGLAs Fox, Esq., Hon. Treasurer. All sums received are acknowledged weekly in Hand and Heart.
The family of Frances Ridley Havergal must express their gratitude for the love to their sister which these offerings so fully testify. They also wish to thank the Rev. Charles* and Mrs. Bullock for their energy and personal labour in widely scattering appeals, and then answering thousands of letters. This is indeed a tribute of love from the friends of both our beloved father and sister.
From the deeply touching letters received we copy the following.
ce a
(Zo Rev. C. Buttock.)
Ihumbly write enclosing one shilling for the F. R. H. Memorial Fund; it is a poor invalid’s humble mite. I will, with your permission, relate the circumstances under which it is sent. I have been afflicted more than nine years. A friend sent me “Royal Commandments”; this book is indeed a joy and comfort to my soul, and I read my daily commandment with a pure happiness, and each day gain a renewal of strength from my King. The portions for the tenth and eighteenth days have been an especial blessing to me. The book is very dear to me. I most willingly deny myself some little necessity that I may contribute to the Fund.
JOsEPH HARRISON.
(Zo Rev. C. BuLtock, enclosing a post office order for ten shillings.)
WOLVERHAMPTON, February 23, 1880.
It is my privilege to be able to add my humble testimony to the work of that devoted servant of Christ, Miss F. R. Havergal, so lately called away to receive her reward, and not only éo, but I am also glad as a railway working man to be able to send you a little help towards swelling the Memorial Fund of one so truly blessed. I have latterly obtained some of her writings, which I find to be of the greatest value, and I trust, with God’s help and blessing, will be so esteemed by us as to rank next in value to the word of God itself. My own spiritual experiences I find so clearly marked out in what she has written in that beautiful book, ‘‘ Kept for the Master’s Use,” that I am sure God will give great success to the extension of such a dissemination of precious truths, which (with the aid of His Spirit) not only show the erring child the besetting sin which keeps back the entire consecration to His service, but must also stand as a ‘‘lamp” to guide the feet of many a poor sinner grovelling amidst the darkness of this world, and lead them up to that light and liberty wherewith Christ doth make His
children free.
Yours respectfully,
WILLIAM BUTLER.
Very many letters have been received, from all parts, acknowledging blessings received through the books which. it is proposed by this Fund to translate and circulate; and as specimens, and incentives, we may reprint the following.
(Extract from a letter of the BARONESS WREWSKY, Golubowo, Russia, November 1879, to J. E. J.)
Thank you for your kindness in sending those two lovely little books of Miss Havergal’s, which reached me quite safely, and have come to rejoice both me and my little girl, who with her brother studies every morning the chapters quoted in ‘‘ Morning Stars,” and finds out the verses.
I am just delighting in ‘‘ Kept for the Master’s Use,” and thank you so much for sending it. It is so full of earnest, realizing faith and love in Jesus, that it quite stirs one’s heart to the very depths.
Oh for such entire consecration, for such a life of faith and close communion! Oh, how Llong for it, how I pray for it!
‘(From Mrs. KEIGHTLEY, JZynora, Sydney, December 1879, to J. M. C.)
I received “‘ The Last Week” which you were so kind as to send me. Our clergyman, Mr. Taylor, was so impressed with the account, that he took the liberty of writing an article on it in Zhe Australian Churchman, which I now send. I also saw a very nice articlein Zhe Christian Herald; and there have been several sermons preached on the life and death of your dear sister in various parts of the colony. She was indeed a shining light. “There is a gentleman in this district, now officiating as catechist to Mr. Taylor, a Mr. Frazer, who entirely ascribes his conversion, under God’s blessing, to F. R. H.’s writings.
Very handsome contributions to the Memorial Fund have come from this colony. Many similar testimonies have been received from all parts of the world; and thus, though not permitted to carry out her lifelong wish to be a missionary, yet the Lord has used my dear sister’s books, in far distant missionary stations.
It has been suggested that it would be very desirable if yearly subscriptions were paid to the F. R. H. Fund, thus continuously to carry on the support of trained Bible women, who, with the living voice in the Zenanas, may long echo her words, as Well as the translation of her works,
BB