Lead On, O King Eternal

Can you imagine this hymn being sung at a commencement for young seminarians? Ernest Shurtleff wrote it for his own graduating class in 1887 at Andover Theological Seminary. He was twenty-six years old, and had graduated from Harvard and, after beginning a literary career, had felt called to the ministry. 

This stirring hymn deserved a lively tune. It was first set to Henry Smart’s “Lancashire” in the 1905 Methodist Hymnal. Henry Smart became one of the finest organists of his day in England, though largely self-taught. His overwork as a young man strained his eyes, and by the time he was fifty-two he was totally blind. He continued playing the organ and conducting until his death at the age of sixty-six. His daughter wrote down his compositions as he played them for her. He composed many works, edited several hymnals, and gave unreservedly of his musical gifts to the church. Today, over one hundred years after his death, his name is found in hymnals around the world with the hymn tune he wrote when he was twenty-three.