Like a River Glorious

Song
By: Frances R. Havergal

1) Like a river glorious is God's perfect peace,
Over all victorious in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest;
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

2) Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the Spirit there.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest;
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

3) Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love.
We may trust Him fully all for us to do;
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest;
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

Story
1876
...I will extend peace to her like a river... Isaiah 66:12

In 1876, while vacationing in the south of Wales, Frances Havergal caught a severe cold and suffered inflammation of the lungs. Told she might die, her response was: "If I am really going, it is too good to be true." Her friends were amazed at how peacefully she faced the prospect of dying. That same year, she wrote the hymn:

Like a river glorious, is God's perfect peace,
Over all victorious, in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth, fuller every day,
Perfect, groweth, deep all the way.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

Three years later, while meeting some boys to talk with them about the Lord, she ran into cold, wet weather and became chilled. As her fever grew worse, her family became alarmed. It gradually became apparent that Frances, 42, was dying. On Whitsunday, as one of her doctors left the room, he said, "Goodbye, I shall not see you again."
"Then you really think I'm going?" asked Frances.
"Yes."
"Today?"
"Probably."
"Beautiful," said Frances. "Too good to be true."
Soon aferward she looked up smiling and said, "Splendid to be so near the gates of heaven!" She asked her brother to sing some hymns to her, then he said to her, "You have talked and written a great deal about the King, and you will soon see Him in His beauty."
"It's splendid!" she replied. "I thought He would have left me here a long while; but He is so good to take me now."
A little later she whispered, "Come, Lord Jesus, come and fetch me."
A terrible rush of convulsions seized her, and when they ceased, the nurse gently laid her back on her pillows. Frances' sister later wrote: "Then she looked up steadfastly, as if she saw the Lord. Surely nothing less heavenly could have reflected such a glorious radiance upon her face. For ten minutes we watched that almost visible meeting with her King, and her countenance was so glad, as if she were already talking to Him! Then she tried to sing, but after one sweet, hight note "HE-," her voice failed and her brother commended her soul into the Redeemer's hands."