“Her letters,” says Bishop Burnet, “are written with an elegant simplicity, with truth and nature, which can flow only from the heart.  The tenderness and constancy of her affection for her murdered lord presents an image to melt the soul.”  Horace Walpole says, “I have now before me a volume of letters of the widow of the beheaded Lord Russell, which are full of the most moving and impressive eloquence.”  In fact it would be difficult to find a combination of so much good sense, tender affection, womanly fortitude, and deep piety in any collection of letters.  It is observable also that in the whole course of these letters there is not to be found a trace of resentment or of reflection upon any person who had caused her husband’s death.  When James II. was no more king, but a fugitive in a foreign land, she utters no word of triumph over him, nor says that he was justly punished for his cruel crimes.  Even the inhuman Jefferies, whose violence helped to get her husband condemned, is passed over in silence, and no reference is made to his disgrace, and his shameful end.  She had attained to such moderation of spirit that no trace of anger appears against the unworthy instruments that had brought overwhelming grief upon her.  In nothing more than this is the excellence of her Christian character conspicuous.

JAMES MACAULAY, M.A., M.D.

Frances Ridley Havergal

I.

HER EARLY LIFE.

     “Oh, ‘Thine for ever!’ What a blessed thing
        To be for ever His who died for me! 
      My Saviour, all my life Thy praise I’ll sing,
        Nor cease my song throughout eternity.”

[Illustration]

Such were the words penned by Frances Ridley Havergal on an important day in her history; and they seem to be a fit expression of the purpose of one, the strains of whose songs shall reverberate through all ages.

Frances Ridley Havergal was born at Astley in Worcestershire on December 14, 1836.  She was the youngest daughter of William Henry Havergal, who was rector of Astley.  Her second Christian name she got from her godfather, Rev. W.H.  Ridley, and rejoiced in the fact that he was descended from the godly martyr, Bishop Ridley.

Her eldest sister Miriam gives a glowing description of Frances:[1]

[Footnote 1:  The quotations, when not otherwise acknowledged, are made, and the chief of the facts taken, by kind permission of Messrs. Nisbet & Sons, from Memorials of Frances Ridley Havergal.]