{"id":11777,"date":"2012-06-06T17:04:37","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T00:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=11777"},"modified":"2015-03-19T15:31:03","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T22:31:03","slug":"lead-thou-me-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2012\/06\/06\/lead-thou-me-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Lead Thou Me On"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today Neal Obstat<\/a> posted the\u00a0lyrics\u00a0to the wonderful song\u00a0“Lead, Kindly Light”<\/span><\/em>, together with a beautiful\u00a0musical\u00a0rendition of the text<\/a>.\u00a0The words to this song come from the poem “The Pillar of Cloud”\u00a0<\/span><\/em> by John Henry Newman<\/a>, a Catholic priest who was recently beatified.<\/p>\n

\"Newman\"<\/p>\n

I don’t know how, but this song somehow managed to fly beneath my radar for the past thirty years, but I’ve been captivated by it all afternoon, as it’s a perfect song for a Restless Pilgrim like me…<\/p>\n

Lead, kindly Light, amid th\u2019encircling gloom, lead Thou me on!<\/em>
\nThe night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on!<\/em>
\nKeep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see<\/em>
\nThe distant scene; one step enough for me…<\/em><\/p>\n

Meantime, along the narrow rugged path, Thyself hast trod,<\/em>
\nLead, Savior, lead me home in childlike faith, home to my God.<\/em>
\nTo rest forever after earthly strife<\/em>
\nIn the calm light of everlasting life.<\/em><\/p>\n

After a little bit of googling, I found out a little bit about the background to the song. It turns out that Newman penned the words while he was ill in Italy:<\/p>\n

“Before starting from my inn, I sat down on my bed and began to sob bitterly. My servant, who had acted as my nurse, asked what ailed me. I could only answer, ‘I have a work to do in England.’ I was aching to get home, yet for want of a vessel I was kept at Palermo for three weeks.\u00a0<\/span><\/em>I began to visit the churches, and they calmed my impatience, though I did not attend any services.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

At last I got off in an orange boat, bound for Marseilles. We were becalmed for whole week in the Straits of Bonifacio, and it was there that I wrote the lines, Lead, Kindly Light, which have since become so well known”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n