He leads us on by paths we did not know,
and republished it on May 8, 1867, with a note reading “Some years ago we published the following poem, which was written for our columns by H. O. Wiley, Esq. Since then it has traversed the country in all directions, without any credit being given either to our paper or to the author. We reproduce it from a Western paper in order to correct several errors that have crept into it. Ed.” It is the only hymn included in the small volume of Wiley’s poems published as a memorial to him soon after his death. Its earliest appearance in a hymn book was in the 1873 Supp. to the Unitarian Sunday School Hymn Book, with the first line changed to
God leads us on, etc.,
About the same time it reached England, where it passed into a number of collections without the name of the author. In Julian’s Dictionary, p. 1647, “J.M.” states that it appears as Anon. in Our Home beyond the Tide, Glasgow, 1878, and that in Meth. Free. Ch. Hys., 1889, it is attributed to “Count Zinzendorf, about 1750. Tr. H.L.L.” (Jane Borthwick) although that attribution is questioned because the hymn could not be found in any of Miss Borthwick’s translations. The mistaken attribution persisted, however, long enough to be included in the second edition of the Pilgrim Hymnal, in the first decade of this century. Since then the hymn has passed, in its original form and rightly attributed to Wiley, into various other collections, among them the New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914, and Hymns of the Spirit, 1937.
H.W.F.
Willard, Rev. Samuel, 1776-1859. He graduated from Harvard College in 1803, served the First Church (Unitarian) in Deerfield, Massachusetts 1807 to 1829, when he resigned on account of blindness. In 1823 he published a collection of 158 songs, composed by himself, and in 1830 a compilation entitled “Sacred Music and Poetry Reconciled,” a hymnbook containing 518 hymns by various authors, about 180 of them written by himself. This book was adopted for use in the Third Parish in Hingham, Massachusetts where Willard was then living, but had little circulation elsewhere, and none of his hymns came into general use.
H.W.F.
Williams, Velma Curtis (Wright), East Boston, Massachusetts, July 29, 1852—January 22, 1941, Boston, Massachusetts. Wife of [Rev. Theodore C. Williams], q.v. Her Hymnal: Amore Dei, compiled by Mrs. Theodore C. Williams, was published in Boston in 1890, revised edition 1897. It was edited with the assistance of her husband, then minister of All Souls’ Church, New York, where it was used, and in many other churches as well. Mrs. Williams herself wrote no hymns.
J. 1604 H.W.F.
Williams, Rev. Theodore Chickering, Brookline, Massachusetts, July 2, 1855—May 6, 1915, Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1876, and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1882. He was ordained minister of the Unitarian Church in Winchester, Massachusetts, in 1882, but became minister of All Souls’ Church, New York in 1883. He resigned in 1896, and spent two years in Europe. After his return he served as headmaster of Hackley School, Tarrytown, New York, 1899-1905. A classical scholar, and gifted as a poet, he published a fine metrical translation of Virgil’s Aeneid, wrote a number of hymns which are religious poetry of a high order, and assisted his wife, [Velma C. Williams], q.v., in compiling her Hymnal: Amore Dei, 1890, revised edition 1897. A few of his hymns appeared in this book and, with others of later date, are included in The New Hymn and Tune Book, 1914, and Hymns of the Spirit, 1937, as follows: