Article October 4, 1900 Issue

Religious Items

Concerning the hymn "Lead, Kindly Light," a writer in the Universalist Leader says; "Some additional particulars concerning Cardinal Newman's hymn may be of interest to the reader. It was written before he went over to the Roman Catholic Church. It was composed while the author was becalmed in the bay near Sicily. Several days the ship remained becalmed and stationary near the island. It was during this period that he wrote the hymn. Night was coming on. So he says: 'Lead me, kindly light,' 'The night is dark and I am far from home.' 'One step enough for me.' The poet was undoubtedly homesick and 'far from home.' but he felt the need of patience and submission. 'One step enough for me.' 'I loved to choose and see my path,' 'but now lead thou me on,' till 'when the night is gone,' I might see those angel faces 'which I have loved and lost a while.' So the scenes that met the vision of the poet suggested various expressions in the hymn. He threw his feelings into the hymn and thus made it su jective as well as objective. This adds greatly to its beauty. He makes it subserve the passage through this world and its relation to the future. And thus its beauty is increased still further and its charm heightened."

The (Baptist) Standard says: "No one who takes Christ as his model will ever be discouraged. It is remarkable that, through his whole career, our Lord had no word of complaint. He said nothing that would imply any doubt of the future. He was always hopeful. This may seem to contradict the saying that Christ was the man of sorrows. But there is no contradiction. Though he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, it was not the result of hopelessness. He bore the sorrows of the world, and grieveed over the blindness and the sin of men. But, looking down the centuries, he could see that day when the lion should lie down with the lamb, and a little child should lead them. Jesus believed in the millennium, because he believed both in God and man."

A contributor to the (Episcopalian) Church Standard says: "There are men who claim to be preaching the word of God, when they are only preaching their own uncertainties and doubts. No man can be a true and helpful preacher of God's word, unless his own faith in that word be full and unshaken. The first apostles had full and unshaken certainty that the Holy Scriptures are in very truth the word of God, and therefore one great characteristic of their preaching was its boldness. They never shrank before attack. They never put themselves on the defensive. They never apologized for the Gospel."

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