Another Year is Dawning, Frances Havergal’s Gift to Her Friends and Us

Another Year is Dawning 1873

By: Frances Havergal

Tune by: Baylus McKinney http://youtu.be/4EiPDN4Zphw

Tune: Weber by: Friedrich Freiherr von Flotow https://youtu.be/AR1dnCCrpRQ

Tune: Bremen by: Mechoir Vulpius 1560-1616 https://youtu.be/RsiXy5I8BPk

Tune: St Mabyn by: Frank Humphrey  https://youtu.be/vb6jh4W0acA

Tune: Edengrove by: Samuel Smith 1874  https://youtu.be/y40B5dvoL78

Tune: Salvatori by: J Michael Haydn 1737-1806  https://youtu.be/SOqybRI4yj4

This text has been so popular, it has been set to several different hymn tunes.

Miss Havergal wrote this hymn towards the end of 1873 and had it printed on cards she gave her friends as a celebration of the New Year. She always treated the beginning of the New Year as an opportunity for her to reaffirm her faith and commitment to God.

1. Another year is dawning,
   Dear Father, let it be
   In working or in waiting,
   Another year with Thee.
   Another year of progress,
   Another year of praise,
   Another year of proving
   Thy presence all the days.

2. Another year of mercies,
   Of faithfulness and grace,
   Another year of gladness
   In the shining of Thy face;
   Another year of leaning
   Upon Thy loving breast;
   Another year of trusting,
   Of quiet, happy rest.

   3.  Another year of service,
   Of witness for Thy love,
   Another year of training
   For holier work above.
   Another year is dawning,
   Dear Father, let it be
   On earth, or else in heaven,
   Another year for Thee.

Miss Havergal outlines her hopes and prayers for the coming year. Starting with in all things, whether working or waiting, everything will be for Thee. What would a year fully consecrated to the Lord look like? It would be a year of progress in her faith, a year of praise, and a year of “proving” or acknowledging God’s presence every day.

In the second stanza we see some of the results of living another year for the Lord and they are the many blessings. Blessings of mercy and grace; gladness from being in the Lord’s presence; and a year of quiet rest from trusting and leaning upon Him.

With the third stanza she writes of our service, witness, and training for our holy work, for it is another year for Thee.

Frances Havergal was experiencing tremendous success and adulation for her writing at this time. She had recently signed a contract with an American publisher to begin publishing her books in the US. The first royalty check was expected within a couple of months of her writing this hymn. With the opening of the American market to her work, she hoped to finally have a measure of financial security which as a single women in the 19^th century was difficult to attain. She did finally receive the letter which was to contain the first check, but instead it contained the announcement of the bankruptcy of her publisher; the publisher who also had exclusive rights to publish her work in the US. So not only did she not receive the expected payment she was unable to have her books published in the US for the foreseeable future. This was a hard blow to her, yet, as she writes:

“DEAR MR. S-,
I have just had such a blessing in the shape of what would have been only two months ago a really bitter blow to me; and now it is actual accession of joy, because I find that it does not even touch me. I was expecting a letter from America, enclosing £35 now due to me, and possibly news that “Bruey” was going on like steam, and “Under the Surface” pressingly wanted. The letter has come, and, instead of all this, my publisher has failed in the universal crash. He holds my written promise to publish only with him as the condition of his launching me; so this is not simply a little loss, but an end of all my American prospects of either cash, influence, or fame, at any, rate for a long time to come. I really had not expected that He would do for me so much above all I asked, as not merely to help me to acquiesce in this, but positively not to feel it at all, and only to rejoice in it as a clear test of the reality of victorious faith which I do find brightening almost daily. Two months ago this would have been a real trial to me, for I had built a good deal on my American prospects, now “Thy will be done” is not a sigh but only a song! I think if it had been all my English footing, present and prospective, as well as the American, that I thus found suddenly gone, it would have been worth it, for the joy it has been to find my Lord so faithful and true to all His promises. With regard to many of the promises, there seems no room for even the exercise of faith. It is not that I believe or grasp them, but that I find them all come true as I never did before. The sense of His unutterable loving kindness to me is simply overwhelming . . . Several, times lately I have felt literally overwhelmed and overpowered with the realization of God’s unspeakable goodness to me. I say it deliberately, and with thankfulness and joy for which I have no words. I have not a fear, or a doubt, or a care, or a shadow upon the sunshine of my heart. Every day brings some quite new cause for thankfulness; only today He has given me such a victory as I never had before, in a very strong temptation; He lifted me above it in a way I never experienced yet. pp.107,108”

A year lived for Thee, is a year lived in faith and joy, regardless of the happenstances of our lives. We rejoice in the trials for they reveal our faith and drive us ever closer to our Lord.