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Introduction

Francis Havergal was a noted nineteenth-century British hymnwriter. Ill most of her life, she died at forty-two, delighted that she would soon see Christ. One of her best known hymns begins “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee.” She wrote to a friend, “Perhaps you will be interested to know the origin of the Consecration hymn Take My Life. I went for a little visit of five days to the Areley House. There were ten persons in the house some unconverted and long prayed for, some converted but not rejoicing Christians. [God] gave me the prayer ‘Lord, give me all in this house!’ And He just did. Before I had left the house, every one had got a blessing. The last night of my visit I was too happy to sleep, and passed most of the night in praise and renewal of my own consecration, and these little couplets formed themselves and chimed in my heart one after another, till they finished with ‘Ever, only, ALL for Thee.’” The date was February 4, 1874. Among the eleven verses she wrote that night were the two that follow.