Frances Ridley Havergal, 1836-79
A prayer for the New Year, hailing its advent as another opportunity for progress, service, and training in close fellowship with God.
The poem was written in five stanzas of four lines each as the text of a New Year’s card and distributed by Miss Havergal among friends under the title, “A Happy New Year! Ever Such May It Be!”
The omitted fifth stanza reads:
Another year is dawning
Dear Father, let it be
On earth, or else in heaven
Another year for Thee.
For comments on Frances R. Havergal see [Hymn 126].
MUSIC. CRUCIFIX, of anonymous composition, was taken from the Hymns of the Spirit, Boston: Beacon Press, 1938, where it is used as a second tune to Miss Havergal’s hymn.