Publisher – Anson D. F. Randolph & Company: New York, NY, 1879
Author – Frances Ridley Havergal (Havergal Trust)
I am the better for reading this 135-year-old little pocket book by Frances.
This last memoir of her life has forever changed how I shall sing the hymn, “Take My Life and Let It Be“.
Right at the beginning she establishes the One who is all-powerful in the keeping. “If Christ’s keeping depends upon our trusting, and our continuing to trust depends upon ourselves, we are in no better or safer position than before, and shall only be landed in a fresh series of disappointments” (20).
For we both may and must commit our very faith to Him, entrust to Him our trust.
Amen.
And with that foundation, Frances then masterfully takes us on a path of sanctification where chapter by chapter we are yielding our lives, our moments, our hands, our feet, our voices, our lips, our silver and gold, our intellects, our wills, our hearts, our love, and our selves to Jesus.
Very thorough. Very challenging. Edifying.
“There is no bondage in consecration” (123). Praise God. My heart has been filled with joy.
In conclusion, Frances emphasizes that we give to Jesus because of what He has given for us. The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me. “Out of the realized ‘for me,’ grows the practical ‘for Thee!‘ If the former is a living root, the latter will be its living fruit” (159).
His life, His eternity, His hands, His feet, His voice, His lips, His wealth, His treasures of wisdom and knowledge, His will, His heart, His love, Himself — Jesus has given all for me.
So here is the personal, logical response:
Take myself, and I will be ever, ONLY, ALL for Thee!
Providence Downtown - Roots by the River 