Lord, Thy children guide and keep

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Lord, Thy children guide and keep

Author: William Walsham How (1854)
Published in 48 hymnals

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Piano/Organ
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Handbells
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Representative Text

1 Lord, Thy children guide and keep,
As with feeble steps they press
On the pathway rough and steep
Through the weary wilderness.
Holy Jesus, day by day,
Lead us in the narrow way.

2 There are stony ways to tread;
Give the strength we sorely lack.
There are tangled paths to tread;
Light us, lest we miss the track.
Holy Jesus, day by day,
Lead us in the narrow way.

3 There are sandy wastes that lie
Cold and sunless, vast and drear,
Where the feeble faint and die;
Grant us grace to persevere.
Holy Jesus, day by day,
Lead us in the narrow way.

4 There are soft and flowery glades
Decked with golden-fruited trees,
Sunny slopes and scented shades;
Keep us, Lord, from slothful ease.
Holy Jesus, day by day
Lead us in the narrow way.

5 Upward still to purer heights!
Onward yet to scenes more blest,
Calmer regions, clearer lights,
Till we reach the promised rest!
Holy Jesus, day by day,
Lead us in the narrow way.

The Hymnal: revised and enlarged as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892

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Author: William Walsham How

William W. How (b. Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, 1823; d. Leenane, County Mayo, Ireland, 1897) studied at Wadham College, Oxford, and Durham University and was ordained in the Church of England in 1847. He served various congregations and became Suffragan Bishop in east London in 1879 and Bishop of Wakefield in 1888. Called both the "poor man's bishop" and "the children's bishop," How was known for his work among the destitute in the London slums and among the factory workers in west Yorkshire. He wrote a number of theological works about controversies surrounding the Oxford Movement and attempted to reconcile biblical creation with the theory of evolution. He was joint editor of Psalms and Hymns (1854) and Church Hymns (1871). While rec… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Lord, Thy children guide and keep
Author:	William Walsham How (1854)
Meter:	7.7.7.7.7.7
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Lord, Thy children guide and keep. Bishop W. W. How. [The Narrow Way.] First published in Morrell & How's Psalms & Hymns, 1854, in 5 stanzas of 6 lines, and based on the words "Narrow is the way that leadeth unto life." It has become very popular with hymnal compilers, and, in full or in an abridged form, it is found in numerous collections in Great Britain and America. Original text in the S. P. C. K. Church Hymns, 1871.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

DIX (Kocher)

An early form of the tune DIX was composed by Conrad Kocher (b. Ditzingen, Wurttemberg, Germany, 1786; d. Stuttgart, Germany, 1872). Trained as a teacher, Kocher moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, to work as a tutor at the age of seventeen. But his love for the music of Haydn and Mozart impelled him t…

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ROSEFIELD

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