"Little Pillows"

I love hymns. If you've read much of this blog at all, you already knew that...and you also already knew that I love hymn stories. I love to read about hymn writers. Many of my heroes are hymn writers.

I can't pinpoint the exact beginning of my love of hymns, hymn stories, and hymn writers, but I know who instilled it in me. From the time I was a very little girl, I remember my daddy telling me hymn stories. I remember the admiration in his voice as he told stories of the great hymn writers of the faith.

I mentioned in a previous post our involvement with Bible Memory Association. One of the many benefits of our participation in BMA were the "rewards" that were given for scripture memory. Many of these rewards were books...Biblically sound, truly *excellent* books...no twaddle or fluff to be found.

One of my favorite books from my very early BMA days, which was also a favorite of my dad's, is a tiny book called Little Pillows, or Good-night Thoughts for the Little Ones, by Frances Ridley Havergal. Miss Havergal was a poet and hymn writer who began composing at the age of 7. Though she died at the young age of 42, she wrote at least 80 hymns, including "Take My Life and Let It Be" and "Like a River Glorious". The heart behind her hymns can be seen in this biographical sketch.

Miss Havergal says of the writing of Little Pillows, "...just as we wanted a nice soft pillow to lay our heads down upon at night, our hearts wanted a pillow too, something to rest upon, some true, sweet word that we might go to sleep upon happily and peacefully. And that it was a good plan always to take a little text for our pillow every night."

I recently came across my tiny copy of this book, and the children and I have delighted in reading it at bedtime. I don't know how many times Daddy read the 31 little "pillows" to me during my childhood, but as I read, sometimes I can almost hear his voice reading certain passages.

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Tonight's reading was about "God's Care", from Psalm 121:3..."He that keepeth thee will not slumber." I loved this part:

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"He 'keepeth thee;' only think who is your Keeper! the mighty God, who can do everything, and can see everything. Why need you ever fear with such a Keeper? It is very nice to know that 'He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee;' but it is sweeter and grander still to think that God Himself keeps us."

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What a sweet "pillow", not only for little ones, but for grown-ups, too, and not only for night-time, but for long and difficult days.

(I just came across another treasure. A companion book to Little Pillows, titled Morning Bells, or Waking Thoughts for Little Ones, is available online at Project Gutenberg. The link takes you to the first page of the online version; you can also download the book to print...and it is free! I'm looking forward to reading this and incorporating it into our morning Bible time. )