Ben Brightboots was a real cat that lived in F.R.H.'s parents' home, quite an aristocratic cat, and very lively. As fast as he was, the events were faster and overtook Ben. Reading this story, you want to pick him up and stroke his neck, but while we cannot hold Ben, there is truth here of the greatest value, that we can hold and keep in our hearts. F.R.H. finished this story of Ben, but only after she died was it published by her sister Maria, who also added at the end several more little stories, poems, and hymns by Frances. This book is taken from the five-volume, 8,014-page edition of The...

Never Say Die is a clear, compassionate presentation to lost sinners, showing them their great need and the provision of God in Christ. Samuel Gillespie Prout (1822-1911) was a pastor in Newport, Wales, and he wrote this for old friends whom he had known years earlier. His friend, Frances Ridley Havergal, read and greatly valued one of the early copies printed for private circulation, and she very much wanted this published for many to have and read. After Prout was apparently too occupied to prepare it for publication, she edited it for him, and found a publisher to bring it out into the...

William Henry Havergal (whose youngest child, Frances Ridley Havergal, is more known today) was a wonderfully gifted musician, both as a performer and as a composer, but he declined the offer of a music professorship at Oxford to enter pastoral ministry. Over nearly five decades, his sermons, home visits, care of his flock, diligent ministry, was a "heart work," bringing many to true faith in Christ and building up believers. His extant sermons (so few now remaining among the more than 2,500 briefly listed in his handwritten book, listing only the date, location, and Scripture text for the...