215. Take my life and let it be
Frances R. Havergal, 1836-79
One of the finest hymns of consecration and service. It has been translated into many languages, including Russian, and many of Africa and Asia.
The author’s own story of how this hymn was written after her visit in a certain home throws a vivid light on her evangelical zeal:
There were ten persons in the house, some unconverted and long prayed for, some converted but not rejoicing Christians. He gave me the prayer, “Lord give me ALL in this house.” And He just did. Before I left the house everyone had got a blessing. The night of my visit, after I had retired, the governess asked me to go to the two daughters. They were crying. Then and there both of them trusted and rejoiced. 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 the other, till they finished with “Ever, ONLY, ALL for Thee!”
The hymn appears here unaltered from the original.
For further comments on Frances Havergal see [Hymn 126].
MUSIC. HENDON. This tune appeared first in America in Carmina Sacra, 1841, edited by Lowell Mason. The composer, Henri Abraham César Malan, 1787-1864, born in Geneva, Switzerland, was a man of many interests. He was a well educated minister, a blacksmith, carpenter, printer, and artist. He had a burning zeal for the conversion of souls. Convinced that the national church stood in need of reform, he aroused much opposition. After preaching an unorthodox sermon at the College of Geneva, he was dismissed from his regentship at the college and was finally driven from the state church. He then built a chapel in his own garden and preached there for 43 years, attracting overflowing crowds and becoming widely known throughout Belgium, France, England, and Scotland for his evangelism. He wrote more than 1,000 hymns and set tunes to them, a remarkable achievement. As the originator of the modern hymn movement in the French Reformed Church, Malan has a permanent place in French Hymnody.