“Take my silver and my gold”: Frances Ridley Havergal and “Take My Life and Let It Be”

“Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.” The hymn is a list of offerings: time, hands, feet, voice, money, intellect, will, heart and love. Its writer, Frances Ridley Havergal, tried to live by every line.

Havergal and 1874

Frances Ridley Havergal was an English poet and hymn writer of the nineteenth century, the daughter of a clergyman. She was gifted in languages and music and wrote many hymns and devotional books. The hymn was written in 1874. Havergal later explained that it came during a visit to a house where she prayed for the people staying there, and after a night of joy and prayer, the couplets came to her.

The hymn is written in short couplets, each offering something to God. The simplicity makes it easy to remember and sing.

Silver, gold and voice

One line reads: “Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold.” Havergal is said to have later given her own jewellery to a missionary society, keeping only a few pieces with family meaning. Havergal was a talented singer. The line “Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King” reflected her decision to use her singing mainly for sacred music.

The hymn ends with the most complete offering: “Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.”

Tunes and illness

The hymn has been sung to several tunes over the years, and modern arrangements have given it new life in contemporary worship. Havergal was often unwell, and she died in 1879, only five years after writing the hymn. She was in her early forties. Her short life gave the words about offering “moments and days” a particular weight for later readers.

The hymn names ordinary things: hands, feet, time and money. That keeps it practical. It asks singers to think about how they spend a normal week, as well as how they feel in church.

Consecration services

It is often sung at dedications, ordinations, baptisms and services where believers recommit their lives. Many congregations sing it during harvest and offering times, when its line about silver and gold feels especially fitting. Havergal wrote many other hymns, including “Like a River Glorious” and “I Gave My Life for Thee”, but “Take My Life” remains her best known.

Singing “take my silver and my gold” is easy on a Sunday. Havergal’s decision to give away her jewellery shows what the hymn asks of people when the singing stops.