He explained (in The Congregationalist, 1890) that the change was made by a “literary friend" who first brought the hymn to his notice, and who assumed that the form "Lead, kindly Light" was a typographical error, arising from the close resemblance of the words Lead and Send in careless manuscript. It is surely an instance of loyalty to friendship that Dr. Robinson persisted in so misprinting the hymn in all editions of that popular book up to the day of his death. And so the hymn stands in the more recent issues by the Century Company, now owning the plates of the book. The present familiarity and popularity of the hymn began with its inclusion in 1868 in the Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern. Cardinal Newman's connection with hymnody by no means. ends with this hymn. From his long poem, “The Dream of Gerontius," has been taken the fine hymn beginning, "Praise to the Holiest in the height" (The Hymnal, No. 429). He also published two collections of Latin hymns taken from the Breviaries, and made numerous and excellent translations from them. SOME POINTS FOR DISCUSSION (1) What is the meaning of "kindly Light"? Newman first printed his verses with the title, "Faith-Heavenly Leadings"; in 1836 with the title, "Light in the Darkness," and the motto, “Unto the godly there ariseth up light in the darkness"; since then with the title, “The Pillar of the Cloud." (2) Nothing could have been farther from their author's thoughts than the use of his verses as a hymn. What are the qualities in verses so personal, so closely related to individual experience and circumstances, that make them suitable to be sung by a whole congregation? The Rev. George Huntington has given us (in his Random Recollections) the modest explanation of Cardinal Newman himself: "I had been paying Cardinal Newman a visit. . . . I happened to mention his well-known hymn 'Lead, kindly Light,' which he said he wrote when a very young man. . . . I ventured to say, 'It must be a great pleasure to you to know that you have written a Hymn treasured wherever English-speaking Christians are to be found; and where are they not to be found?' He was silent for some moments and then said with emotion, 'Yes, deeply thankful, and more than thankful'; then, after another pause, 'But you see it is not the Hymn, but the Tune, that has gained the popularity! The Tune is Dykes's, and Dr. Dykes was a great Master.'" The "Lux Benigna" of Dr. Dykes was composed in August, 1865, and was the tune chosen for this hymn by the committee preparing the Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern. Dr. Dykes's statement that the tune came into his head while walking through the Strand in London presents a striking contrast with the solitary origins of the hymn itself. (3) "The fourth verse of the hymn" is often inquired for. It has only three. But Bishop Bickersteth printed in his Hymnal Companion, 1870, a fourth verse of his own composition, as follows :— "Meantime along the narrow, rugged path Lead, Saviour, lead me home in childlike faith, To rest for ever after earthly strife In the calm light of everlasting life." He intended to express his conviction that "the heart of the belated pilgrim can only find rest in the Light of Light." The author of the hymn protested against the addition, and many others joined in the protest. Can the addition be justified? (4) What is the meaning of the last two lines of the hymn," And with the morn," etc.? No doubt those who sing the hymn will interpret these lines as expressing their hope of being reunited with those they have loved and lost by death. But it does not follow that such was the author's original meaning. Would a theologian have referred to his glorified friends as angels? Attention has been called to Newman's statement that after his awakening to God in his sixteenth year, he was strongly conscious both in his waking and sleeping moments of the presence of angels. That consciousness he subsequently lost, greatly to his sorrow; and the suggestion is made that these lines expressed his hope of regaining it when the night had gone. Another suggested meaning is that in its darkness and perplexity the soul had lost the angel faces not only of Fancy and Hope and youthful Confidence, but of those divine forms of Faith and Assurance which had accompanied the believer in the early fervor of his belief. When quite an old man Cardinal Newman was asked by letter to explain the meaning of these lines, to which letter he returned this curious answer : "My dear Mr. Greenhill, "THE ORATORY, January 18, 1879. "You flatter me by your question; but I think it was Keble who, when asked it in his own case, answered that poets were not bound to be critics, or to give a sense to what they had written; and though I am not like him, a poet, at least I may plead that I am not bound to remember my own meaning, whatever it was, at the end of almost fifty years. Anyhow, there must be a statute of limitation for writers of verse, or it would be quite tyranny if, in an art which is the expression, not of truth, but of imagination and sentiment, one were obliged to be ready for examination on the transient state of mind which came upon one when home-sick, or sea-sick, or in any other way sensitive or excited. "Yours most truly, "JOHN H. NEWMAN." IX MY COUNTRY, 'TIS OF THEE THE TEXT OF THE HYMN My country, 'tis of thee, Of thee I sing; Land where my fathers died, From every mountain side 2 My native country, thee, I love thy rocks and rills, 3 Let music swell the breeze, The sound prolong. |