1 Lead us, O Father, in the paths of peace;
Without Thy guiding hand we go astray,
And doubts appall, and sorrows still increase;
Lead us through Christ, the true and living Way.
2 Lead us, O Father, in the paths of truth;
Unhelped by Thee, in error's maze we grope,
While passion stains and folly dims our youth,
And age comes on, uncheered by faith and hope.
3 Lead us, O Father, in the paths of right;
Blindly we stumble when we walk alone,
Involved in shadows of a mortal night;
Only with Thee we journey safely on.
4 Lead us, O Father, to Thy heav'nly rest,
However rough and steep the pathway be,
Through joy or sorrow, as Thou deemest best,
Until our lives are perfected in Thee.
William H. Burleigh
The Methodist Hymnal 1939 edition
<idle musing>
Reading the lyrics, I was struck by the fact that it would have made a great Trinitarian hymn if the other two members of the Trinity had been mentioned. But, when I checked out the bio of the author and found out he was Unitarian, it made sense. Oh, and it isn't very popular, occurring in under 200 hymnals. His bio mentions that his hymns were more popular in Britain than the US, and that they were more popular outside Unitarianism than within it.
</idle musing>
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