ezekiah Butterworth, an authority on hymnology, pronounces this to be “the sweetest and most trustful of modern hymns”; while Colonel Nicholas Smith says, “Christians of all denominations and of every grade of culture feel its charm and find in it ‘a language for some of the deepest yearnings of the soul.’ The hymn-books do not contain a more exquisite lyric. As a prayer for a troubled soul for guidance, it ranks with the most deservedly famous church songs in the English language.”
Its distinguished author, John Henry Newman, was born February 21, 1801, the son of a London banker, and seventy-eight years later became a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. At the early age of nineteen he was graduated from Trinity College, Oxford, and became a tutor in Oriel College. He was ordained in 1824, and in 1828 was made vicar of St. Mary’s Protestant Episcopal Church, Oxford.
He was a popular, forceful preacher, with fluent speech, perfect diction, and a splendid fund of illustration which he always used with telling effect. He was deeply interested in the heart-life of men, and was ever ready to encourage them to speak to him freely of their experiences and temptations. He exercised a strong influence over the students who thronged his church.
In December, 1832, because of impaired health, he went with friends to southern Europe. The spiritual unrest, kindled by the “Oxford Movement,” which finally led him to unite with the Roman Catholic Church, in 1845, was already upon him; he sought eagerly and conscientiously for divine guidance in solving the great doctrinal problems that vexed his soul. It was during this period of inner disquietude and of anxious thought for the future of the Established Church, of which he was still a member, that his noble hymn, “Lead, Kindly Light,” had birth—a hymn which has voiced the heartfelt prayers of thousands for spiritual guidance.
In the minds of many there is intimate association of thought between Newman’s supplication:
“Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on!”
and another intensely human heart-cry for direction and companionship in the hour of need—Henry Francis Lyte’s
“Abide with me, fast falls the eventide: