Lord’s Day, Vol. 10 No. 11
He Leadeth Me
He leadeth me, O blessed thought!
O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!
Whate’er I do, where’er I be
Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.
Refrain
He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful foll’wer I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.
Sometimes ‘mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,
By waters still, o’er troubled sea,
Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me.
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.
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.
- Joseph Henry Gilmore
The birthplace of this hymn was a brownstone dwelling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the time was the evening of March 26, 1862. According to the author, Joseph Henry Gilmore, the background of the hymn is this:
I was invited to preach for two Sundays at the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia. At the mid-week service, on 26th March 1862, I set out to give the people an exposition of the Twenty-third Psalm. I had given this exposition on three or four other occasions, but this time I did not get beyond the words “He leadeth me.” So greatly impressed with I with the blessedness of divine guidance that I made this my theme.
It was the darkest hour of the Civil War… 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 that God is leading us.
At the close of the mid-week meeting, a few of us went to the home of my host, good Deacon Wattson. There we continued our discussion of divine guidance. While I was still talking and listening, I wrote on a piece of my exposition manuscript the words of this hymn. I handed the paper to my wife and more or less forgot the incident.
In 1865 I went to Rochester, New York, to preach a “trial sermon” at the Second Baptist Church. I picked up a church hymnal to see what songs they sang and was surprised to have the book fall open to the very song I had written three years earlier. To me this was an indication of divine leadership with regard to my acceptance of this pastorate.
When I returned home, I related this experience to my wife. “I do not understand it,” I said. “My words had been set to music by Dr. William B. Bradbury; yet I had not given the words to anybody.” My wife smiled and said, “I can explain it, Joseph. I felt that the words would bless the hearts of the people in those troublesome times; so I sent the poem to The Watchman and Reflector [Boston]. I am glad to know that they have printed it.” Later I found that Dr. Bradbury had read the poem in The Watchman and had felt that it should be set to music and published. I had written four stanzas and a two-line refrain; Dr. Bradbury had added only the last two lines of the refrain.
Joseph Gilmore was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 29, 1834. After graduating from Brown University and Newton Theological Seminary with honours,
Gilmore served as pastor of Baptist churches in New Hampshire and New York. He taught Hebrew for a year at Rochester Theological Seminary and spent two years as private secretary to his father, who was governor of New Hampshire during the Civil War. In 1868 he became professor of logic, rhetoric, and English literature at the University of Rochester. Gilmore served forty years in the latter position: then he was professor emeritus, an honour he held until his death on July 23, 1918.
William Batchelder Bradbury (1816-1868) was a native of York, Maine. He studied organ and voice in Boston and abroad and became an accomplished organist and choirmaster. His first position was at a small church that offered him twenty-five dollars per annum to play the organ. Upon assuming his duties he found that the type of organ owned by the church required that the musician depress the keys, then pull them up again to stop the sound. They promptly asked that his pay be doubled, since, as he told them, double work was required. Bradbury greatly enhanced church and choral music in America, publishing at least fifty-nine different hymn books.
The tune Bradbury wrote to go with “He Leadeth Me, O Blessed Thought” is called AUGHTON or HE LEADETH ME. It was published with Gilmore’s text in Bradbury’s Golden Censor: a Musical Offering to the Sabbath Schools of Children’s Hosannas to the Son of David, 1864. [Extracted and Edited from Treasury of Great Hymns and their stories – Guye Johnson]
Yours lovingly,
Pastor Lek Aik Wee