In addition to the quotations from Hezekiah Butterworth and Colonel Nicholas Smith, with which the study of this hymn begins, it will doubtless prove interesting to read what other men of prominence have said in this connection:

“This much-loved hymn.”—Dr. Louis F. Benson, author of “Studies of Familiar Hymns.”

“Its sincerity of feeling and purity of expression have made it universally acceptable.”—Samuel Willoughby Duffield, author of “English Hymns.”

“This is truer to the life of thoughtful men than almost any other hymn, but it is so subjective and personal that it is more for the closet than for the Church. It is the favourite hymn of our students.”—The President of a prominent University.

“It can scarcely be called either a great poem or a great hymn, and certainly it is not a lyric. Yet it has certain striking passages, and appeals to those who for any reason are beset by darkness.”—Rev. David R. Breed, D.D., author of “The History and Use of Hymns and Hymn-Tunes.”

“The beautiful hymn, ‘Lead, Kindly Light,’ is of value to the Church for its poetry and its pathos. For times of depression and darkness come to nearly all of us, and this is just the cry which the heart bowed down would use at such times of anxious and sacred communion.”—Rev. G. L. Stevens, editor of “Hymns and Carols.”

“The most stirring thing I know is that struggling cry of the wanderer for light, ‘For I am far from home.’ The writer’s personality adds pathos to his tender song. Out of this song, appropriated by a struggling soul to himself, one is prepared for the sublime and recovering thought in the dream of the wanderer, ‘with sun gone down,’ and the way appearing ‘steps up to heaven.’”—Rev. William V. Milligan, D.D., Cambridge, Ohio.

Footnotes

[1]President of the Presbyterian Historical Society; Chaplain of the Forty-first Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, 1861-62; Chaplain of the Second Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, during the Spanish-American War; Founder of the National Relief Commission, in Spanish-American War; Author of “The Latimers: A Scotch-Irish Historic Romance of the Western Insurrection,” “Women Friends of Jesus,” “The Last Days of Jesus,” “The Gospel of Nature,” “Tenants of an Old Farm,” “American Spiders and their Spinning-work,” “Old Farm Fairies,” “The Agricultural Ant of Texas,” “The Honey and Occident Ants,” and “Martial Graves of our Fallen Heroes in Santiago de Cuba: A Record of the Spanish-American War.”

Transcriber’s Notes