From the Church Pastoral-Aid Society's Quarterly Paper

The death of Miss Frances Ridley Havergal, which took place at Caswell Bay, near Swansea, on the 3rd of June last, has been deeply deplored by the Christian church at large. The many volumes of hymns and meditations from her pen on the ‘‘ things touching the King” are so vividly impressed on the minds of most of our readers that it is sometimes difficult to feel that she could possibly have written of anything else. Her illness was of short duration, and the circumstances of her early removal, almost by a sudden stroke, invest with a peculiar interest the following extract from correspondence with reference to the offer which she made of devoting the proceeds of the sale of her piano, the gift of her talented father, to the funds of the Society.

In a letter to the Secretary, from which he is privileged to quote, her sister wrote:

‘*Tt may be of use to you, in writing about the gift, to recall the exact circumstances. Towards the end of last year, my dear sister read the statement of the failing funds of the Church Pastoral-Aid Society, whose noble work she always admired and sympathised with. She expressed to me her desire and intention of sending a* cheque for £50, but just then the claims of some other Societies were so urgently laid before her that she gave to them instead. But the longing also to help the noble and half-paid workers in the Church vineyard still weighed on her, and I remember her saying, How I wish I could send off a cheque at once! but fear I must wait a year.’ But, as with other generous gifts, she waited not, but with much delight told me that she would give her much-valued piano, left to her by her beloved father. It originally cost 110 guineas, and as it had been so little used she would not let it go under the half price. It was too large for our rooms in Wales, hence she resolved to give it to your Society.”

Little did the C@mmittee think, in the course of their correspondence with Miss F, R. Havergal-on the subject of her offer, that she who had so often sung in sweetest strains of expectation of future and endless joy in Christ was so near the border of the land of promised rest. Since her death, the gift, £50, has been received.