I know not where the road will lead

I know not where the road will lead. Evelyn Atwater Cummins* (1891-1971). Written in 1922, this must be one of the first hymns to have been inspired by the radio. Cummins recalled that she was unwell, and unable to attend church, so she listened with earphones to a sermon by Dr Samuel Parkes Cadman (1864-1936, a pioneer religious broadcaster) on the topic of ‘The King’s Highway’. She continued: ‘the title sort of stuck in my head, and so I thought I would put down what the King’s Highway meant to me’ (The Hymnal 1940 Companion, 1949, pp. 269-70). She sent the hymn to Dr Cadman, who read it on the radio on several occasions. It had six 4-line stanzas, each ending ‘I walk the King’s highway’,...