Counterintelligence - Frances Ridley Havergal

1836–79

Every so often, some historian tries to figure out the most influential figures in Christian history. Popes and reformers, preachers and theologians—cases can be made for all of them. But don’t forget the hymn writers. These people have shaped Christian worship through the centuries, putting words in our mouths week after week.

It’s actually possible to trace trends in Christian thinking through the songs sung in different eras. The Methodist revolution of the 1700s owed as much to Charles Wesley’s hymns as to John Wesley’s preaching. And Fanny Crosby’s experiential lyrics helped to fuel a recovery of personal faith in the late 1800s.

For a rather short time in the mid-1800s, the English hymn writer Frances Ridley Havergal was moving in a slightly different direction. Her songs were not so much about personal feeling but more about individual commitment. Where Charles Wesley was teaching theology and Fanny Crosby was marketing it, Frances was exploring how to live it out. Her hymns were embraced by those in the Keswick (“Higher Life”) movement that was developing at the time.

Frances’s best-known hymn is probably “Take My Life and Let It Be,” in which she offers various aspects of her life for the Lord’s use—hands, feet, voice, lips, money, intellect, will, heart. She also wrote a sort of commentary on that song: Kept for the Master’s Use, a booklet with a chapter on each of those aspects of life.

In her section on intellect, she suggested that “two distinct sets of temptations” afflict those who think they’re smart and those who don’t. The nonintellectuals “are tempted to think themselves excused from effort to cultivate and use their small intellectual gifts,” while the intellectuals “are tempted to rely on their natural gifts, and to act and speak in their own strength.”

It’s a great observation, and it rings true. In her time and place, there were plenty of religious academics who were analyzing Scripture beyond recognition. There were also those who simplified the faith to whatever made them feel good. We still have those extremes today. Frances asserted, “The intellect, whether great or small, which is committed to the Lord’s keeping, will be kept and will be used by Him.”

So the question for you is not how much “intellect” you have, but what you’re doing with it.

May all my thoughts be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD.

Psalm 104:34