HE LEADETH ME

It was 200 weeks ago that I began to write weekly blogs about hymns.  It started out as just a novel way to remind me of the many hymns which have helped me over the years.  Little did I know then how much interest there was in such a blog.  And what started just as a hobby has surprisingly grown to a ministry which about 750 of you are now visiting weekly.  I am amazed.  As I approached this "bicentennial" blog, I thought long and hard about which hymn I should choose for this week.  Then, on the radio, I heard somebody sing "He Leadeth Me" and I thought what an appropriate choice that would be for this week.  The writer, Joseph H. Gilmore, shared how he came to write the words. "As a young man who recently had been graduated from Brown University and Newton Theological Institution, I was supplying for a couple of Sundays the pulpit of the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia. At the midweek service, on the 26th of March, 1862, I set out to give the people an exposition of the Twenty-third Psalm, which I had given before on three or four occasions, but this time I did not get further than the words "He Leadeth Me." Those words took hold of me as they had never done before, and I saw them in a significance and wondrous beauty of which I had never dreamed.  It was the darkest hour of the Civil War. I did not refer to that fact — that is, I don't think I did — but it may subconsciously have led me to realize that God's leadership is the one significant fact in human experience, that it makes no difference how we are led, or whither we are led, so long as we are sure God is leading us. At the close of the meeting a few of us in the parlor of my host, good Deacon Wattson, kept on talking about the thought which I had emphasized; and then and there, on a blank page of the brief from which I had intended to speak, I penciled the hymn, talking and writing at the same time, then handed it to my wife and thought no more about it. She sent it to The Watchman and Reflector, a paper published in Boston, where it was first printed. I did not know until 1865 that my hymn had been set to music by William B. Bradbury. I went to Rochester [New York] to preach as a candidate before the Second Baptist Church. Going into their chapel on arrival in the city, I picked up a hymnal to see what they were singing, and opened it at my own hymn, "He Leadeth Me."  And for over 150 years this hymn has been the testimony of many believers.  And once again, notice the last verse.  Not only does He lead us through our life here on earth, but He will lead us as we make our journey to our heavenly home.  I pray that this hymn might also be your testimony and experience as it is mine.

(1)  He leadeth me, O blessèd thought!

O words with heav'nly comfort fraught!
Whate'er I do, where'er I be
Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.
He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.

(2)  Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom,

Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,

By waters still, over troubled sea,

Still 'tis His hand that leadeth me.

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,

By His own hand He leadeth me;

His faithful follower I would be,

For by His hand He leadeth me.

(3)   Lord, I would place my hand in Thine,

Nor ever murmur nor repine;

Content, whatever lot I see,

Since 'tis my God that leadeth me.

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,

By His own hand He leadeth me;

His faithful follower I would be,

For by His hand He leadeth me.

(4)   And when my task on earth is done,

When by Thy grace the vict'ry's won,

E'en death's cold wave I will not flee,

Since God through Jordan leadeth me.

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,

By His own hand He leadeth me;

His faithful follower I would be,

For by His hand He leadeth me.

Listen to it being sung here.    LISTEN