The Ministry of Song

Frances Ridley Havergal

68 chapters · about 2 h

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The opening

PRELUDE.

AMID the broken waters of our ever-restless thought, Oh be my verse an answering gleam from higher radiance caught; That where through dark o’erarching boughs of sorrow, doubt, and sin, The glorious Star of Bethlehem upon the flood looks in. Its tiny trembling ray may bid some downcast vision turn To that enkindling Light, for which all earthly shadows yearn.

Oh be my verse a hidden stream, which silently may flow Where drooping leaf and thirsty flower in lonely valleys grow; And often by its shady course to pilgrim hearts be brought The quiet and refreshment of an upward-pointing thought; Till, blending with the broad bright stream of sanctified endeavour, God’s glory be its ocean home, the end it seeketh ever.

The whole book is in the Sphinx app.

About this edition

The words
The author's text, copied word for word.
Left out
  • Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 6 places
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 3 places
  • Other material that isn't the author's
  • The printer's imprint ("MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.")
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1, in 2 places
  • Printed ornaments and dividers
  • The printed table of contents (the app makes its own)
  • The index
  • The library's date-due slip (9 blocks)