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 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 221

consciousness of direct answers. In her Memoirs she writes : I was so overwhelmed on Sunday at hearing three of my hymns touchingly sung in Perry Church. I never before realized the high privilege of writing for the &quot; great congregation,&quot; especially when they sang &quot; I gave My life for thee,&quot; to my father s tune, &quot; Baca. &quot;

Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-79) was the daughter ot Rev. \V. H. Havergal. Her second name was that of her godfather, the Rev. W. H. Ridley, whom she greatly loved. When she was five years old her father became Rector of St. Nicholas, Worcester. Her mother died when she was eleven, leaving impressions which influenced the girl s whole life. Not long before her death, Miss Havergal said that the words her mother taught her thirty years before had been a life-prayer with her. Pray to God to prepare you for all that He is preparing for you. Her schoolmistress, Mrs. Teed, under whose care she was placed in 1850, proved a wise counsellor. A school fellow begged me to go to Jesus and tell Him I wanted to love Him and could not, and then He would teach me to. Miss Havergal added, The words of wise and even eminent men have since fallen on my ear, but few have brought the dewy refreshment to my soul which the simple loving words of my little heaven-taught schoolfellow did. In February, 1851, on a visit to Okehampton to Miss Cook, whom her father married a few months later, she ventured to speak of her desire for pardon, and received counsel which led her into the light. Then and there I committed my soul to the Saviour and earth and heaven seemed bright from that moment. Religion filled her life with sunshine. An Irish schoolfellow says she was like a bird flashing into the room, her fair sunny curls falling round her shoulders, her bright eyes dancing, and her fresh sweet voice ringing through the room. She inherited her father s musical gifts, and would play through Handel, and much of Beethoven and Mendelssohn, without notes. She was also an accomplished linguist. At the close of 1873 she was led to a fuller and deeper consecration. Every gift was devoted to her work of setting forth the love of God and the way of salvation.

She died at Caswall Bay, Swansea, on June 3, 1879. She had caught cold on May 21, while talking to the men of the place, whom she met in the open air to speak to them about temperance. Through all her pain she said, Oh, how splendid to be so near the gates of heaven ! She told the vicar of

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