Lead on, O King eternal

Lead on, O King eternal. Ernest Warburton Shurtleff* (1862-1917). Written for Shurtleff’s Andover Theological College graduation in 1888, and printed for that occasion; then in the American Presbyterian Hymnal (Philadelphia, 1895). It became very popular: it is found in American Methodist books from 1901 onwards, and is in UMH. It was taken into the American Episcopal Hymnal (1916), and remained in H40 and H82, sung (as in UMH) to LANCASHIRE by Henry Smart* (written for ‘From Greenland’s icy mountains’* by Reginald Heber*). It is found in the British Baptist BHB (1962), set to LLANGLOFFAN. Its initial imagery of warfare has probably prevented this stirring hymn from being more widely used...

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