A Song Lived Out

The hymn “Take My Life and Let It Be” contains the line “Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.” The lyric author, Frances B. Havergal, was a renowned musician and poet. She died in her early forties as an unmarried maid, but not before proving the legitimacy of this stanza in her song. She wrote to a friend in 1878, “The Lord has shown me another little step, and, of course, I have taken it with extreme delight. ‘Take my silver and my gold’ now means shipping off all my or...