\nIn the book Illness, Edwin and Lillian Harvey have researched the lives of saints to discover how they coped with physical suffering. It is the first in the series on God and Suffering known as \u201cThe Call Back Series.\u201d In it, you will find that, together with other saints of the past, Frances Ridley Havergal calls back to us through her pain and suffering. \u201cPain,\u201d she writes, \u201cis but one of His graving tools, producing the likeness to Jesus for which we long. . . .I think one must pass through it for one\u2019s self before one can actually realize the actual blessing of suffering. Meanwhile, you may well take the testimony of those who have. Its conscious effects are to give one deeper feeling of one\u2019s entire weakness and helplessness (a lesson which we are all slow to learn in health), and of the real nothingness of earthly aims and comforts, and the fleetingness . . .of everything except God. Then, it drives one close to Him each moment; one cannot bear it even for one moment alone; one must lean and cling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take this pain, Lord Jesus
\nFrom Thine own hand,
\nThe strength to bear it bravely
\nThou wilt command.
\nI am too weak for effort
\nSo let me rest,
\nIn hush of sweet submission,
\nOn Thine own breast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take this pain, Lord Jesus,
\nAs proof indeed
\nThat thou art watching closely
\nMy truest need:
\nThat Thou, my Good Physician,
\nArt watching still;
\nThat all Thy own good pleasure
\nThou wilt fulfill.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2019This Thy dear hand, O Savior,
\nThat presseth sore,
\nThe hand that bears the nail-prints
\nForevermore,
\nAnd now beneath its shadow,
\nHidden by Thee,
\nThe pressure only tells me
\nThou lovest me.\u201d
\n\u2014F.R. Havergal <\/em> (Illness pp. 23-24).<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>Continue reading...<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The name \u201cFrances Ridley Havergal\u201d is known to most Christians. Her hymn, \u201cTake My Life and Let It Be\u201d is sung in churches all over our land while her poems and writings are available in nearly every Christian Book Store. Yet perhaps few know that Frances\u2019 doctors declared her to be extremely sensitive to physical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harveycp.vitelline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harveycp.vitelline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harveycp.vitelline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harveycp.vitelline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harveycp.vitelline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/harveycp.vitelline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2166,"href":"https:\/\/harveycp.vitelline.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions\/2166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harveycp.vitelline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harveycp.vitelline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harveycp.vitelline.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}