Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah

Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but Thou art mighty,
Hold me with Thy powerful hand :
Bread of heaven,
Feed me till I want no more.

2 Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through :
Strong Deliverer,
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield.

3 When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside ;
Death of deaths and hell's Destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan's side :
Songs of praises I will ever give to Thee.

This hymn was first written in the Welsh language by the Rev. William Williams, a clergyman of Wales, and was printed in his Book of Hymns in 1745. About twenty-seven years afterward he printed this English version of his hymn, the first verse of it made by his brother, the other verses by himself. The writer thinks of our life as a march across the desert to the better land, like that journey of the Israelites of which we read in Exodus; and he thinks of God as leading us and feed¬ing us now as He did His people then. [NOTES.—Verse 1, line 5. Bread of heaven. See Exodus xvi, 14,15, and St. John's Gospel vi, 31-35. Verse 3, lines 1, 3. See Exodus xvii, 6. Verse 3, line 3. ".Death of deaths, and hell’s Destruction." These words are titles given to God: He can put an end to the power of death and of hell.]