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LEAD KINDLY LIGHT

Words

1 Lead kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home;
Lead thou me on.
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene, - one step enough for me.

2 I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead thou me on;
I loved the garish day, and spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

3 So long thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on,
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

Background Information

The words were written by John Henry Newman (1801 - 1890) whilst ‘at sea’ on 16 June 1833, somewhere in the Mediterranean. He was homesick, and on a journey home from Sicily and during the journey fell very ill of a fever - it is not certain whether the hymn was written before or after his illness.

The hymn could be considered as a prayer for God’s guidance, with the words ‘lead thou me on’ appearing several times. Alternatively, it has been suggested that ‘kindly light’ means the light of conscience (kindly being used in the Elizabethan sense of ‘implanted, innate’).

Newman entered the Church of Rome in 1848, and was made a Cardinal in 1879. Well - as always there’s a twist in the tale. Fr Stephen says that the ‘angel faces’ mentioned in the last verse are in fact memories from Newman’s childhood of the ‘spirits’ that he would see at the bottom of the garden amongst the trees.

The hymn can be sung to various tunes. Lux Benigna by John Bacchus Dykes was composed specifically for it. Alternatively it is often sung to Sandon by Charles Henry Purday.