She had a life that was well-tuned to her Creator, but still
felt the need to vocalize her commitment to him when she was 34 years old. Was there
something in 1870 that compelled the Englishwoman Frances Ridley Havergal to declare
“I Bring My Sins to Thee”? Was it an especially close loss, either recent or soon-expected,
that stirred her poetic spirit to write about four parts of her life that she offered
to give to the ultimate Giver? Perhaps she felt that all things were from Him
anyway, so why not be willing to relinquish all that her life was currently possessing?
These included the adverse issues, as well as those at the opposite end of the
spectrum. Take all of them, because whether good or ill, they compose me, and make
me unique. That was indeed true of Frances.
Frances Havergal had experienced her share of heartache and
joy by the time “I Bring My Sins to Thee” gestated in her spirit in 1870. Raised
in an Anglican minister’s home, Frances showed the same poetic and hymn-writing
traits as her father, William Henry Havergal. A brother, Henry, was a priest
and played the organ. Although her mother died when Frances was just 11 years
old, it may have been this mother’s deathbed words to the Havergals’ youngest daughter
that impacted her most deeply – words urging her to be totally committed to
God, to be His vessel. With these stimuli, Frances did indeed follow a path
that would have undoubtedly pleased her mother, while using the gift most
evident in her father. This very bright, highly educated young girl (she studied
six languages) was also affected by her father’s ill health, forcing the family
to move, including at least once as he took on ministry in a smaller church.
Frances was likewise occasionally plagued by illness as a young woman, eventually
succumbing to an infection at age 42. Eight years earlier, was her father’s
death in 1870 a precipitating factor in her composition of “I Bring …”,
perhaps? She mentions four broad facets of her life – anyone’s life – that she
offered to the One she worshipped. Could these have been occupying her mind in
the wake of her father’s death, or alternately, as she watched him decline? ‘Sins’
(v.1), ‘Grief’ (v.2), ‘Joys’ (v.3), and ‘Life’ (v.4) were all parts of herself
that she wanted to surrender to Him. Understandably,
the offerings she made in the first two verses one could speculate are easier –
who wants to hang onto sin and grief, after all? But, what about joy and life
itself? What would a 34-year old’s vantage point look like, that would make her
say this? Perhaps she’d surmised by this time that one had to accept that good
and evil coexist. Would her poem have been more aptly entitled ‘I Bring It All
to Thee”?
Frances was looking at her own experience broadly, probably
not for the first time, but maybe in sharper relief, as death was becoming all
too real yet again for herself and those to whom she was closest. Is there an
escape hatch? Though still a relatively young woman, even negative events had
prospered Frances Havergal – her mother’s dying words inspired her, and conceivably
it was her other parent’s mortality that helped spawn “I Give…” over 20 years
later. I don’t welcome the negative. Nobody does. Yet, somebody once said something
about a seed dying and giving new life. Who was that?
See this site for information on the composer: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/a/v/havergal_fr.htm
See also here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Ridley_Havergal
See all four original verses of the song here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/b/r/ibringms.htm
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