Another Year Is Dawning

Frances Ridley Havergal was an English poet and hymn writer – her best known hymns from our hymn book are Take My Life and Let It Be and Lord, Speak to Me That I May Speak. She showed signs of being very intelligent very young, began writing verse at age seven, but was discouraged from rigorous study by delicate health. Yet she still took a year to study music in Germany, was able to speak several modern languages along with biblical Greek and Hebrew, and published many books of hymns. She died too young at 42. (Thanks to the wholesomewords.org for links to a number of biographies on her!)

In one of her letters to a friend she said this about writing hymns: 'Writing is praying with me, for I never seem to write even a verse by myself, and I feel like a little child writing. You know, a child would look up after every sentence and say, "What am I to say next?" That is just what I do. I ask that at every line He would give me not merely thought and power, but also every word even the very rhyme. Very often I have a most distinct and happy consciousness of direct answers.' (Popular Hymns and Their Writers by Normal Mable, 1951).

All of that is background for what follows – one of her verses written specifically for New Year’s.

ANOTHER YEAR IS DAWNING

Another year is dawning,

Dear Master, let it be,

In working, or in waiting,

Another year with Thee.

Another year of mercies,

Of faithfulness and grace;

Another year of gladness

In the shining of Thy face.

Another year of progress,

Another year of praise,

Another year of proving

Thy presence all the days.

Another year of service,

Of witness of Thy love,

Another year of training

For holier work above.

Another year is dawning,

Dear Master, let it be

On earth, or else in heaven

Another year for Thee.

--Frances Ridley Havergal (1874)

There is much that I like about that hymn, and I pray that you will reflect upon it, and use it in prayer and preparation at the beginning of this new year! By the way she also has a wonderful reflection called “Twelve reasons for attending church on a wet Sunday”, which is worth looking into and reading, but I will save that for next month!