Standing at the portal

Standing at the portal.  Frances Ridley Havergal* (1836-1879). In The Poetical Works of Frances Ridley Havergal (1884), edited by her sister Maria, this is marked as written at Hastings on 4 January 1873. In another part of the book, Maria gives the poem under ‘New Year Verses’, with the date as 3 January, saying that it was written at Winterdyne (the English home near Bewdley, Worcestershire, of her Irish friends Mr and Mrs Shaw). The matter remains unresolved. It was printed in Havergal’s Under the Surface (1874), in a section entitled ‘Our Blessings’, with the title ‘Faithful Promises. (New Year’s Hymn.) Isa xli.10.’ It had four stanzas, each ending with the refrain: Onward, then, and...