Little Quicksilver

Little Quicksilver

She wrote a hymn that became her prayer.

FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL was born in 1836 to a Christian family in England. She was a very bright child who read well at age three and was writing poetry at age seven. She memorized long passages of Scripture, learned several languages, and became an excellent pianist. Her father called her “Little Quicksilver.”

Her mother became terminally ill when Frances was only eleven. On her deathbed she told her devastated, sensitive daughter, “Fanny dear, pray God to prepare you for all He is preparing for you.” Fanny took her mother’s words to heart and made this her lifelong prayer.

From her teen years she loved to write and sing, desiring to use her gifts to win others to her Savior. She once described her writing process: “Writing poetry is easy for me. Most of the time I just put down in verse a personal experience. Writing hymns is like praying, for I never seem to write even a verse by myself. I feel like a child writing. You know a child will look up at every sentence and ask, ‘What shall I say next?’ That is what I do. Every line and word and rhyme comes from God.”

On February 4, 1874, Frances Ridley Havergal wrote the hymn “Take My Life and Let It Be.” Frances was spending five days visiting in the home of some friends that included several unbelievers and lukewarm believers. She felt burdened for them and prayed, “Lord, give me all in this house.” By the end of the visit her prayer was answered, and her friends were rejoicing together in the joy of knowing Christ personally. Fanny wrote to her sister of the event, “The last night of my visit I was too happy to sleep, and passed most of the night in praise and renewal of my consecration; and these little couplets formed themselves, and chimed in my heart one after another, till they finished with ‘ever—only—ALL for thee!’

Take my life, and let it be

Consecrated, Lord, to thee;

Take my hands, and let them move

At the impulse of thy love.

Take my feet, and let them be

Swift and beautiful for thee;

Take my voice and let me sing

Always, only, for my King.

Take my lips, and let them be

Filled with messages for thee;

Take my silver and my gold,

Not a mite would I withhold.

Take my moments and my days,

Let them flow in ceaseless praise;

Take my intellect, and use

Every power as thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it thine;

It shall be no longer mine;

Take my heart—it is thine own!

It shall be thy royal throne.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour

At thy feet its treasure store;

Take myself, and I will be

Ever, only, all for thee!

Frances considered “Take My Life and Let It Be” to be an expression of her own commitment to Christ. She frequently reviewed the words prayerfully in order to consecrate herself to Jesus anew. She died four years after writing the hymn, at age forty-two, leaving a legacy of many hymns such as “Like a River Glorious,” “Lord, Speak to Me That I May Speak,” “I Am Trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,” and “Who Is on the Lord’s Side?”

Reflection

Is it your prayer that God would “take your life and let it be consecrated” to him? Use this hymn as a sincere prayer that God would work in your life today.

Give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God.

Romans 6:13