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                                Kept for
                              the Master's
                                   Use


                                   By
                             Frances Ridley
                                Havergal

                              Philadelphia
                          Henry Altemus Company

                   Copyrighted 1895, by Henry Altemus.

                      HENRY ALTEMUS, MANUFACTURER,
                              PHILADELPHIA.




                                CONTENTS.




  I. Our Lives kept for Jesus,                                          9
  II. Our Moments kept for Jesus,                                      26
  III. Our Hands kept for Jesus,                                       34
  IV. Our Feet kept for Jesus,                                         46
  V. Our Voices kept for Jesus,                                        51
  VI. Our Lips kept for Jesus,                                         66
  VII. Our Silver and Gold kept for Jesus,                             79
  VIII. Our Intellects kept for Jesus,                                 91
  IX. Our Wills kept for Jesus,                                        96
  X. Our Hearts kept for Jesus,                                       104
  XI. Our Love kept for Jesus,                                        109
  XII. Our Selves kept for Jesus,                                     115
  XIII. Christ for us,                                                122




                             PREFATORY NOTE.


My beloved sister Frances finished revising the proofs of this book
shortly before her death on Whit Tuesday, June 3, 1879, but its
publication was to be deferred till the Autumn.

In appreciation of the deep and general sympathy flowing in to her
relatives, they wish that its publication should not be withheld. Knowing
her intense desire that Christ should be magnified, whether by her life
or in her death, may it be to His glory that in these pages she, being
dead,

                    'Yet speaketh!'

                                               MARIA V. G. HAVERGAL.

Oakhampton, Worchestershire.




                                  KEPT
                                   FOR
                            The Master's Use.


    Take my life, and let it be
    Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.

    Take my moments and my days;
    Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

    Take my hands, and let them move
    At the impulse of Thy love.

    Take my feet, and let them be
    Swift and 'beautiful' for Thee.

    Take my voice, and let me sing
    Always, only, for my King.

    Take my lips and let them be
    Filled with messages from Thee.

    Take my silver and my gold;
    Not a mite would I withhold.

    Take my intellect, and use
    Every power as Thou shalt choose.

    Take my will and make it Thine;
    It shall be no longer mine.

    Take my heart; it _is_ Thine own;
    It shall be Thy royal throne.

    Take my love; my Lord, I pour
    At Thy feet its treasure-store.

    Take myself, and I will be
    Ever, _only_, ALL for Thee.




                               CHAPTER I.
                        Our Lives kept for Jesus.


    _'Keep my life, that it may be_
    _Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.'_

Many a heart has echoed the little song:

    'Take my life, and let it be
    Consecrated, Lord, to Thee!'

And yet those echoes have not been, in every case and at all times, so
clear, and full, and firm, so continuously glad as we would wish, and
perhaps expected. Some of us have said:

    'I launch me forth upon a sea
      Of boundless love and tenderness;'

and after a little we have found, or fancied, that there is a hidden leak
in our barque, and though we are doubtless still afloat, yet we are not
sailing with the same free, exultant confidence as at first. What is it
that has dulled and weakened the echo of our consecration song? what is
the little leak that hinders the swift and buoyant course of our
consecrated life? Holy Father, let Thy loving spirit guide the hand that
writes, and strengthen the heart of every one who reads what shall be
written, for Jesus' sake.

While many a sorrowfully varied answer to these questions may, and
probably will, arise from touched and sensitive consciences, each being
shown by God's faithful Spirit the special sin, the special yielding to
temptation which has hindered and spoiled the blessed life which they
sought to enter and enjoy, it seems to me that one or other of two things
has lain at the outset of the failure and disappointment.


First, it may have arisen from want of the simplest belief in the
simplest fact, as well as want of trust in one of the simplest and
plainest words our gracious Master ever uttered! The unbelieved fact
being simply that He hears us; the untrusted word being one of those
plain, broad foundation-stones on which we rested our whole weight, it
may be many years ago, and which we had no idea we ever doubted, or were
in any danger of doubting now,--'Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise
cast out.'

'Take my life!' We have said it or sung it before the Lord, it may be
many times; but if it were only once whispered in His ear with full
purpose of heart, should we not believe that He heard it? And if we know
that He heard it, should we not believe that He has answered it, and
fulfilled this, our heart's desire? For with Him hearing means heeding.
Then why should we doubt that He did verily take our lives when we
offered them--our bodies when we presented them? Have we not been
wronging His faithfulness all this time by practically, even if
unconsciously, doubting whether the prayer ever really reached Him? And
if so, is it any wonder that we have not realized all the power and joy
of full consecration? By some means or other He has to teach us to trust
implicitly at every step of the way. And so, if we did not really trust
in this matter, He has had to let us find out our want of trust by
withholding the sensible part of the blessing, and thus stirring us up to
find out why it is withheld.

An offered gift must be either accepted or refused. Can He have refused
it when He has said,