Additional information
by David L. Chalkley (Editor), Glen T. Wegge (Editor), Frances Ridley Havergal (Author)
Frances Ridley Havergal wrote these two books at the end of her life, very shortly before her unexpected early death at 42 and a half. She completed Kept for the Master's Use, an encouragement to believers to follow wholly the Lord Jesus, built around the verses of her Consecration Hymn, published soon after her death. She planned thirteen chapters for Starlight Through the Shadows, but only finished eleven of them before she was called into His presence. Starlight has much truth and encouragement for the invalid and those who are afflicted; Frances had been herself invalid and sick near death a number of times, and here she teaches and comforts others with the lessons and comfort that God gave to her. At the end of Starlight, her sister Maria added several other pieces finished by Frances, more than the two unwritten chapters would have been. There is true encouragement here to "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth."
Author Biography
Frances Ridley Havergal's formal education ended when she was seventeen, with one term at a young women's school in Dusseldorf, Germany, yet she was a true scholar all her life. Fluent in German and French and nearly so in Italian, she read and loved the Reformers in Latin, German, and French. Knowledge was never an end in itself, only a means to know better her Lord and Saviour and to help to bring others to know Him. The Bible was her only Book, and she studied deeply the Hebrew and Greek texts of Scripture, memorized nearly all the New Testament and large portions of the Old Testament, and loved the Author with all her being. Frances was brought to a saving knowledge of Christ when she was fourteen, and the rest of her life was consecrated to her Savior, the Lord Jesus. Keenly aware of her own sinfulness and inability, her sole desire was to please and glorify Him alone. Very finely gifted, she was truly diligent with her gifts: her poetry is among the finest Christian verse in the English language, after George Herbert; her prose works are deeply beneficial; a musician to the core, she left behind important compositions. Like her works, her life richly touched the ones near her and countless many who met or heard her. The Lord Jesus Christ was her alone, only beauty, and she glowed Him and His truth. These books are taken from the newly prepared edition of The Complete Works of Frances Ridley Havergal. Never wanting attention to herself, Frances' desire of her heart was for herself and for others to know her King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Her works are a gold-mine of help and enrichment. As her sister Maria, wrote, 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 !" David L. Chalkley and Glen T. Wegge, editors
