She sat across from a painting of Christ hanging on the cross. The words “This have I done for thee; what hast thou done for Me?” were printed just above the wreath of thorns on Jesus’ head. Inspired by the scene before her and this simple question, she jotted down a few lines of poetry.
Later that evening, as she sat before the fire, she pondered the words she had written and decided they just weren’t right; crumpling the paper, she tossed it into the flames. However, Providence had other plans for this young woman’s half-begun poem. A gust of wind came down through the chimney and blew the crumpled poem out of the fire unharmed.
She showed the verses to her father, a hymn writer and composer himself, and he encouraged her to add additional stanzas. She did so, and thus began one of the most brilliant careers in hymnology.
Francis Ridley Havergal wrote hundreds of hymns and an entire volume of poems. Her scholastic achievements were extensive. She spoke French, Greek, German, Hebrew, and Latin. She memorized the entire New Testament, Psalms, and Isaiah. She was a vocalist, pianist, and the composer of several hymn tunes. She died at the age of 43, but in her short lifetime, she wrote some of the most memorable and well-loved hymns; hymns still just as popular and loved today as they were when she first wrote them. I Gave My Life for Thee, Take My Life and Let It Be, Like a River Glorious, and Live Out Thy Life Within Me, are found in the 1985 Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal (hymns 281, 330, 74, and 316, respectively).
Frances’ entire life and all her strength were consecrated to God and her poems “were permeated with the fragrance of her passionate love for Jesus.” (Rev. James Davidson, B.A.)
The song inspired by a painting, a question, and saved from the fire was I Gave My Life for Thee.
I gave My life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
That thou might ransomed be,
And quickened from the dead.
I gave, I gave My life for thee,
What hast thou given for me?
I gave, I gave My life for thee,
What hast thou given for Me.
My Father’s house of light,
My glory-circled throne,
I left, for earthly night,
for wand’ rings sad and lone;
I left, I left it all for thee
Hast thou left aught for Me?
I left, I left it all for thee,
Hast thou left aught for Me?
I suffered much for thee,
More than thy tongue can tell,
Of bitterest agony,
To rescue thee from hell.
I’ve borne, I’ve borne it all for thee,
What hast thou borne for Me?
I’ve borne, I’ve borne it all for thee,
What has thou borne for Me?
Source: A Hymn is Born by Clint Bonner; hymnary.org/person/Havergal_Frances