such a bright, happy and vivacious child that
her father, who was a minister of the Church of England and himself a
hymn-writer of no mean ability, called her "Little Quicksilver." Her
father was also a gifted musician, and this quality too was inherited by
the daughter, who became a brilliant pianist and passionately fond of
singing. However, because she looked upon her talents as gifts from God
to be used only in His service, she would sing nothing but sacred songs.

Her sunshiny nature became even more radiant following a deep religious
experience at the age of fourteen. Of this she afterwards wrote:

"I committed my soul to the Saviour, and earth and heaven seemed brighter
from that moment."

At the age of eighteen she was confirmed. It is evident that she looked
upon her confirmation as one of the most blessed experiences of her life,
for when she returned home she wrote in her manuscript book of poems:

"THINE FOR EVER"

Oh! Thine for ever, what a blessed thing
To be for ever His who died for me!
My Saviour, all my life Thy praise I'll sing,
Nor cease my song throughout eternity.

She also wrote a hymn on Confirmation, "In full and glad surrender." This
hymn her sister declared was "the epitome of her life and the focus of
its sunshine."

Four years later, while pursuing studies in Duesseldorf, Germany, Miss
Havergal chanced to see Sternberg's celebrated painting, _Ecce Homo_,
with the inscription beneath it:

This have I done for thee;
What hast thou done for me?

This was the same painting that once made such a profound impression on
the youthful mind of Count Zinzendorf. Miss Havergal was likewise deeply
moved, and immediately she seized a piece of scrap paper and a pencil and
wrote the famous hymn:

I gave My life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
That thou might'st ransomed be,
And quickened from the dead.
I gave My life for thee:
What hast thou given for Me?

She thought the verses so poor after she had read them over that she
tossed them into a stove. The piece of paper, however, fell out untouched
by the flames. When she showed the words to her father a few months
later, he was so touched by them he immediately composed a tune by which
they could be sung.

This seems to have been one of the great turning points in the life of
the young hymnist. Her hymns from this period reveal her as a fully
s