Heritage Sabbath Materials, October 26, 2002

This hymn by Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was written in 1744 and first appeared in John Wesley's Moral and Sacred Poems. It was republished by Charles in Hymns for Our Lord's Resurrection. Each of these stanzas concluded with the exultant refrain of rejoicing, but Wesley concluded his last stanza with the stirring couplet:

We soon shall hear the Archangel's voice,

The trump of God shall sound, rejoice.

DARWALL'S 148^TH, named for the composer and the psalm for which he wrote it, "Ye Boundless Realms of Joy," was first used in Aaron Williams's New Universal Psalmist, 1770. John Darwall was born in the village of Haughton, Staffordshire, England, in January 1731. An Oxford graduate, he served as curate, then 20 years as vicar, of St. Matthew's church, Walsall, where this tune was first sung on Whitsunday in 1773. He died there on December 18, 1789. As an amateur musician, Darwall wrote two volumes of piano sonatas, hymn texts, and tunes and composed music for all 150 psalms in two-part harmony.

The Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, published in 1985, was the first Adventist hymnal to include this hymn.

--Condensed from Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White, Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, 1988, pp. 263-265.

This paraphrase of the first part of Psalm 90, a psalm attributed to Moses, appears in Watts's Psalms of David, 1719, in nine stanzas. Isaac Watts (1674-1748) titled it, "Man Frail and God Eternal." He wrote it at a time when the Dissenters, that is, those who did not conform to the established Church of England, were in danger of severe persecution and of having their schools and academies closed. However, the death of Queen Anne on the very day that the Schism Bill of 1714 was due to go into effect, and the coming to the throne of George I, brought them relief. Since the inclusion of this text and tune in the 1961 Hymns Ancient and Modern, it has served the British Commonwealth almost as a second national anthem.

ST. ANNE was composed by William Croft to commemorate the 12 years he was organist at St. Anne's Church in Soho, London. Croft was born at Nether Ettington in Warwickshire, near Stratford-upon-Avon, in 1678. He became a chorister in the Chapel Royal, and then organist at St. Anne's, Soho, in London from 1700-1712. He was also joint organist with Jeremiah Clarke at the Chapel Royal from 1704, and in 1708 organist at Westminster Abbey. The University of Oxford granted him the degree of D.Mus. in 1713. At first, Croft wrote songs and odes for the theater, but later composed music for harpsichord and violin, and hymn tunes for the church. He wrote 30 anthems and psalm tunes. He died at Bath, Somerset, on August 14, 1727.

The 1908 Christ in Song was the first Adventist hymnal to include this hymn.

--Condensed from Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White, Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, 1988, pp. 153-154.

While James and Ellen White were traveling in Ohio in 1858, they found a group of forty new Sabbathkeepers in a small settlement called Lovett's Grove. On Sunday afternoon, March 14, a funeral was held in the schoolhouse for a youth well known in the community. Elder White was asked to preach the sermon. When he had finished, Mrs. White arose to say a few comforting words. While speaking, she paused, and her listeners noticed that the expression on her face had changed. Instead of looking at those seated before her, she was gazing upward, as if seeing something in the distance.

Then they heard, in a rich, musical voice, the shout, "Glory to God!" Again the same words, as full of melody as before, yet lower and softer, "Glory to God!" And a third time, as if coming from a distance, "Glory to God!"

James White spoke. "My wife is in heavenly vision." She had become weak, as usual when entering into vision, and was leaning backward, supported by her husband's arm. Soon she stood up and took a step forward, a radiant smile lighting her face.

The people seated at the school desks watched in awed silence. Now and then they caught a word, perhaps a sentence, an exclamation, or question. Whisperings were heard around the room. "Hush, she must be talking with someone!"

James White said, "She is conversing with her accompanying angel. In these visions she is shown many things that those around her cannot see. At times she is given a view of things which happened long ago, or which are still in the future. Sometimes she seems to be in heaven, talking with Jesus and the angels."

There was an awed silence in the room. Someone whispered, "Heaven is near, very near!"

Softly another person said, "It seems as if we are listening at the open gate of heaven. If only we could catch a glimpse of the glory within, and hear the angel voices!"

"What can she be looking at now?" someone whispered. "It must be something terrible! See! She is wringing her hands as if in distress; and the expression of anguish on her face--what can it mean?"

Elder White answered quietly, "She is probably looking at scenes of great suffering!"

Breathlessly everyone waited and watched. What could be causing her such grief? After a time the anxious, troubled look left her face and a pleased expression took its place.

"Evidently the scene now before her is a joyous one," said Elder White.

The gloom had lifted. The coffin at the front of the room was for the time forgotten. It was now late afternoon. The people watching saw a change come over Ellen White. For the two hours that she had been in vision she had not breathed at all, but now she took a full, deep inhalation as if filling her lungs for the first time. After a brief pause there was another deep breath, then another.

She began to notice the people around her. They had gathered close to her and were asking what she had seen in the vision. But she did not wish to talk, she said--not just yet. It was a solemn time.

The coffin was borne to the graveyard, and relatives and close friends left for that part of the service. Some of the people remained, hoping that Mrs. White would tell them what she had seen in the vision. She described some of the scenes just presented to her, and they listened with special attention. What she had been shown we today call the Great Controversy vision.

On Tuesday, as the Whites traveled from Ohio to Michigan, Mrs. White told her husband more about what had been presented to her, adding, "I must write out the vision."

"And then we'll print it in a little book," her husband added.

At Jackson, Michigan, they stopped to visit their old friends, Brother and Sister Dan Palmer. Mr. Palmer took James outside to look around his garden while the two women visited. Suddenly in the middle of a sentence Mrs. White felt a strange sensation in her mouth. Her tongue seemed thick and numb. She could not pronounce the words she was trying to speak. A chill passed over her head and down her right side, and she knew nothing more until she heard the two men praying for her. She looked around and tried to rise, but fell back helpless.

"A stroke! A severe stroke!" she heard the men say. But they continued to pray. After a time she made another effort to rise. With her husband's assistance she was able to stand and move around a little.

The next day, despite the Palmers' invitation that they stay until Mrs. White was better, with her husband's support, she painfully made her way to the carriage and was lifted in. Soon James and Ellen were on the train for the two-hour ride to Battle Creek. For some time after getting home, she could not take one step alone, nor could she feel the coldest water poured on her head. Yet she could not forget the command of the angel to write the vision and publish it.

She asked for writing materials while her side was still paralyzed. Trying with all her strength, she managed to write a few sentences, and the first day completed one page. It wasn't easy, but each day she accomplished a little more than the day before. By the time the vision was written out and printed, the effect of the stroke had disappeared, and she was in her usual health.

After she completed her writing, but before the book was printed, God showed Ellen White in vision that the stroke she had suffered in Jackson at the home of the Palmers was Satan's attempt to kill her. Satan did not want her to be able to write out what she had been shown about him.

The vision filled a book of 219 pages. It told of the beginning of sin and sorrow, first in heaven, then in the Garden of Eden. It revealed how Jesus offered to die in the place of sinners. It showed His battles here on this earth with His great enemy, Satan, who finally led wicked men to nail Him to the cross.

She described the interest shown by angels and the inhabitants of unfallen worlds in God's great plan for saving people, and the wonder of the entire universe at God's unspeakable love in giving His own Son to save a race of rebels. She told of their joy when Christ arose to life and returned to heaven, having conquered Satan, sin, and death. She pictured the joyous welcome He received as He returned to His Father's home amid the shouts and praises of millions of angels.

Later, Mrs. White added a brief history of God's people from the time when sin entered the world to the time when it will be uprooted forever. This wonderful story, as she wrote it more fully in later years, fills five large books, called The Conflict of the Ages Series. These books have been translated and published in many languages and are read by millions of people. They explain many of the mysteries connected with the great cosmic battle between Christ and His holy angels on one side, and Satan and his evil angels on the other.

--Adapted from Stories of My Grandmother, by Ella M. Robinson, 1967, pp. 112-117. A facsimile reprint of the first edition of The Great Controversy, called Spiritual Gifts, vol. 1, is available at your Adventist Book Center.

Introduction

Ours is the age of information explosion. Powerful computers, sophisticated satellites, automated teller machines, supersonic transports, and hi-definition audio and video instruments have shrunk our world into one global village. News flashes from London's Buckingham Palace, Beijing's Tiananmen Square, tents in the Sahara desert, or high-rise condominiums in Manila can be heard instantaneously whenever and wherever they happen. The world has come of age. But are we really any wiser? Is the world safer? Do we have a greater sense of security, especially spiritual security?

One need not go far for answers to those questions. Despite cell phones, electronic mail, and tele-fax communication, one need not even leave the comfort of his or her own home to realize that billions of people around the world are confused, deluded, and as gullible as ever. Many "isms," philosophies--new age or other--and the latest so-called scientific theories have done nothing to stop this ever-expanding phenomenon. Rather, the exact opposite is true; we are increasingly vulnerable to confusion, deception, and delusions. So the urgent question for the Christian is, How can we survive? How can we come out spiritual victors?

Despite this seemingly desperate state of people's behavior, there is good news for you today. God is concerned about our gullibility. If the enemy is working hard to confuse, deceive, and misguide, God is working even harder to lead us into truth, righteousness, and holiness.

You see, our gullibility problem is not new. It has been ours ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. Consequently, our problem is not new to God, either. He had a plan to deal with it even before the Fall. So how has God dealt with our gullibility in the past? And what is He doing now to help us survive during this sophisticated age? Our Bibles contain the answers.

In the Beginning

Let's start by looking at how our gullibility began.

In the beginning God designed a beautiful paradise home for Adam and Eve to live in. There was a carpet of fresh lilies. Flowers filled the air with their sweet fragrance. Eden came from the Creator's hand a thing of perfect beauty. Sheltered under a canopy of stars at night, walled in by the cool shade of lofty trees during the day, our first parents daily communed with God face to face. At their Creator's feet they learned the treasures of wisdom and knowledge of God. They conversed with Him personally in an atmosphere of peace, joy, and happiness. Their remaining hours each day were blissful and quiet. The songs of beautiful birds filled the air. Delicate orchids swayed in the sunshine. Little creatures chirped their songs with glee--all to proclaim the truth that God is love. That was the beautiful Eden home as God originally made it.

But Eve accepted the convincing arguments of the serpent. Having stretched out her hand to taste the forbidden fruit, she then got Adam to eat of it also. Suddenly, our first parents found themselves having to flee from their Eden home, as well as from the presence of God. They had exchanged all the bright, holy, and beautiful world that God had made for them for the world of sin that they had helped to bring about. No longer could Adam and Eve stand in the presence of God and commune with Him. They now became isolated from His wisdom, knowledge, and truth. They were now the bewildered and confused captives of Satan's propaganda. From then on the human family lived in a world of confusion, misery, woe, and death.

Seeing what had happened broke God's heart. But despite the changed circumstances, God still loved Adam and Eve. He would now work to warn the human race against Satan's deceptions. God began by telling Adam and Eve that there was a way of escape, and that their Eden home that they had lost could be restored. With face-to-face communication now severed, how could He tell them?

God Communicates Through the Gift of Prophecy

The Bible tells us that God has communicated with people after the Fall. He has done it in several ways. He communicates with us through His creation (Romans 1:20; Psalm 19:1, 2). He communicates with us through His acts in history (2 Chronicles 20:1-30). Through written communication in the Bible He convicts sinners to repent. As His ultimate communication, He sent His Son to demonstrate God's matchless love and character to the world. But the most common form of communication that God has used throughout the entire Bible is the gift of prophecy.

When we look at God's use of prophets, we discover that He especially used them at crucial points in salvation history. And in this, we see again God's love for the human race as He worked out His plan to restore fallen humanity to its Edenic state. In our study today, we will also discover that each one of us ultimately must decide our own response to God's messages through His prophets.

The Gift of Prophecy During the Flood

Let us begin with the Flood.

The consequence of Eve's sinful act was swift and brutal. The first murder was committed in the household of Adam, not far from their lost paradise home. Hatred, death, and moral decay clung to the human race like a shadow. People's wickedness became greater and greater, day after day, year after year. The human race was dragged ever farther from the path of righteousness. But when people's wickedness finally became too great, God in His love intervened. He decided to stop the self-destruction of His created beings. To do so, He sent a flood of waters upon the earth to cleanse it. True to His character of love, justice, and mercy, God devised a plan to adequately forewarn the wicked of the coming judgment. It was God's desire that the wicked return to Him, obey His voice, and be saved.

God first sent a prophet to predict the coming flood long before it happened. Enoch, by naming his son Methuselah, predicted the coming of the Flood (Genesis 5:21). Names in Bible times usually carried significant meanings. Even today, in many cultures, the names given to children by their parents carry significance. Many Bible scholars believe that the name "Methuselah" means "at his death the coming forth of waters." If this is correct, then the Flood was already predicted 969 years before it happened. That means God through His prophet predicted the coming of a terrible judgment long before it happened. And what did God do when the Flood was about to happen? He sent another prophet--Noah--to warn and prepare the world for the oncoming judgment.

Noah was called by God for a special mission: to warn the world of the coming flood. His message was that the world was going to be destroyed by water. His mission: To proclaim the warning message and to prepare the people for the coming judgment. Noah preached for 120 years. The Flood came. The world was destroyed. But those few who had responded to God's warning message through His prophet Noah survived. All others were destroyed.

From this judgment event we discover a pattern of how God used the gift of prophecy in the plan of salvation. Long before judgment is executed, God will warn the world through His chosen medium--usually through His prophets. When the particular judgment is about to happen, God will raise up another prophet, and a special movement, to proclaim a special message, to accomplish a special mission for His plan of salvation. The great exodus of Israel from Egypt is another example of this pattern.

The Gift of Prophecy During the Exodus

The Exodus story is considered by many to be one of the most accurate blueprints of God's plan of redemption. It is the story of salvation in miniature. Like the Flood, the Exodus event was predicted long before it happened. God revealed it first to His servant Abraham (Genesis 15:13, 14).

"Then the Lord said to Abram, ?Know of a surety that your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years; but I will bring judgment on the nation which they serve, and afterward they will come out with great possessions'" (Revised Standard Version).

Did it really happen as was predicted? We all know the story, how Abraham attempted to help God fulfill His covenant by forcing the issue with Hagar and Ishmael. We know that Abraham waited for 25 long years, and was at a ripe old age before Isaac, his legitimate heir, was born. There was a delay, it seems, in God's plan. But God was faithful to His promises. Jacob and Esau were born to Isaac, and through Jacob the population of Abraham's descendants greatly increased, even though they were transplanted in a land that did not belong to them. In Egypt the Hebrews grew politically and numerically, but not spiritually. As a result, they became slaves instead of being honored guests.

However, God did not forget His covenant with Abraham. While His people were suffering, almost at the brink of annihilation, God intervened. He prepared a prophet in His own mysterious way to deliver His people out of Egypt and out of their bondage. God called Moses (Hosea 12:13) as a fulfillment of a previous prophecy. Moses was sent by God to organize the Exodus movement. God gave him a special message and mission. Moses was to warn of an impending judgment, and he was sent to bring a message of hope. Those who obeyed the message were delivered. Those who disobeyed were destroyed.

Once again, after the judgment and after the deliverance, God was ready to begin again with the faithful few. The remnant occupied the promised land. They grew into a strong nation. Under God's leadership they prospered, but again they rebelled against Him. They wanted a king just like all the other nations. Their political progress and material prosperity under kings like David and Solomon was not accompanied by spiritual growth. But through numerous prophets God laboriously and patiently reminded them again and again of their duties and obligations. Occasionally there were revivals and reformations, but overall, the nation continued to go farther and farther away from the path of righteousness.

In time, Israel was divided into two kingdoms. People practiced idolatry. They killed God's prophets (2 Chronicles 36:15). Eventually, in love, God intervened again. He wanted to teach them a lesson of obedience. This time He worked through the kings of heathen nations to execute His judgment. He allowed Israel to go through the painful experience of captivity. But again, God preserved a remnant who could begin all over again. When we study the Babylonian captivity, we can see how the gift of prophecy was active in this judgment event.

The Gift of Prophecy During the Babylonian Captivity

As we now have come to expect, God employed the gift of prophecy to warn His people before this judgment happened. God sent prophets to warn about the Babylonian captivity years before it happened. The prophet Jeremiah warned:

"This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste" (Jeremiah 25:11, 12, Revised Standard Version).

Did this happen as predicted? Yes, exactly. Even the name of the ruler who would be the instrument of God's deliverance was given 150 years before he was born (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1).

This is the pattern God always follows. He sends signals before destruction. Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, to name a few, were God's trumpets for His work of salvation during this bleak period in Israel's history. Despite people's stubbornness, hard-headedness, and apostasy, the abiding gift of prophecy never faltered. All through the captivity, the rebuilding of the temple, the restoration of Jerusalem, and the reestablishment of Israel as a nation, God was there. The gift of prophecy was there, guiding actively, patiently, and perseveringly. The gift of prophecy was present in the ministry of Haggai; it was active in the voice of Zechariah; it echoed in the preaching of Malachi. As God had done many times before, He used the gift of prophecy for the salvation of His people.

The Gift of Prophecy and the First Advent

But this isn't the end of the story. The best was yet to come!

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16, King James Version).

God sent His Son, His ultimate revelation, His greatest Prophet, for the salvation of the lost human race. Symphonies have been written about Christ. Dramas enacted for Him. Types and symbols are devoted to Him, but it was from the lips of God's chosen prophets that we hear the loudest proclamation of Christ's first coming.

The prophecy of Daniel recorded in Daniel 9:24-27 predicted the first advent of the Messiah with astonishing accuracy. Exactly 483 years from the decree to restore Jerusalem by King Artaxerxes, the Messiah was anointed by John the Baptist in the river Jordan. And when the appointed time had come, Jesus was crucified on Calvary's cross. That was earth's greatest remnant-making event. It was the most solemn scene of God's judgment, with ramifications that continue reverberating until today. For what you decide to do with Jesus determines your eternal destiny.

Did God use the gift of prophecy to predict this greatest of all events? Yes, definitely. From Genesis 3:15 to Isaiah 53, it was predicted. From the lamb caught in the thicket on Mount Moriah to the lamb slain in the morning hours in the court of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem, Christ's death was prefigured. Again, God followed the pattern He had outlined in the previous judgment events. He raised up John the Baptist, who, in the spirit and power of Elijah, prepared the highway of the Lord. What about anticipating Christ's second coming? Do you think God will follow the same procedure before that event as He always has done in the past?

The Gift of Prophecy During the Time of the End

God is faithful. He is predictable in the sense that He does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). In fact, all the judgment events that we have mentioned thus far "happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come" (1 Corinthians 10:11, Revised Standard Version). God has always done it that way in the past, so we can expect that He will act the same way at the end of earth's history. This is good news! God's final judgment is coming. He commenced the process for this judgment in 1844. That same year He commissioned a remnant movement to warn the whole world of this great judgment event. As He did so many times in the past, once again He employed the gift of prophecy to guide the movement in carrying out its mission, climaxing in the second coming of Christ.

If God is consistent with the pattern mentioned earlier, there should be a prophecy regarding 1844. And yes, as we would expect, centuries in advance there was a prophecy predicting the final judgment that began in 1844. The prophet Daniel in Daniel 8:14 states that at the end of the 2,300-year period the sanctuary will be cleansed. The cleansing of the earthly sanctuary happened during the Day of Atonement. The cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary in the pre-Advent judgment began in 1844. If God were to be faithful to the pattern, then He would at the same time raise up a prophetic voice to guide His prophetic movement. And true to the pattern, He did.

In December 1844, in the city of Portland, Maine, in the United States, God commissioned another prophet. God revealed His plan to a 17-year-old girl named Ellen Harmon. God showed her that this remnant Advent movement had specific things to do. Its members were to proclaim a special message to the whole world in anticipation of the return of Christ to earth the second time. They were to bear the three angels' messages found in Revelation 14:6-12. The Advent movement is a prophetic movement. It is to carry out its mission with the spirit and power of Elijah, predicted earlier by another prophet, Malachi (Malachi 4:5, 6).

It is easy to identify this movement. It has two characteristics: it keeps the commandments of God and it has the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 12:17). Satan will be angry at this movement. But this movement will survive because God will see it through. It will survive because of the blood of the Lamb. It will be able to carry out its mission because of the guidance of the gift of prophecy.

Conclusion

The Flood judgment had its Noah to proclaim the warning that the Flood was coming (Genesis 6:13, 14). The Exodus event had its Moses (Hosea 12:13) to bring a message of warning and deliverance to enslaved Israel. Israel in apostasy had Elijah to save them from themselves (1 Kings 18:18-31). The first advent of the Messiah had its John the Baptist to announce that His coming was "now" (Luke 3:16).

The judgment that precedes the glorious return of the King of kings has its movement with its message (Revelation 14:6-12) and the help of the gift of prophecy, manifested in the ministry of Ellen White. It will proclaim a present truth to warn and prepare the world of the second coming.

The only question that remains for us now is, How do we respond to the gift of prophecy? Are we listening to its voice? Are we studying it? Are we obeying its counsel? If as a church we want to succeed in our God-given mission; if as an individual you want to survive the coming judgment, then "believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed" (2 Chronicles 20:20, Revised Standard Version).

Let us believe and obey the voice of God revealed through the gift of prophecy, and we will all survive this "Age of Gullibility." In the name of Jesus, Amen.

--Dr. Reuel Almocera currently serves as Director of the Ellen G. White - S. D. A. Research Center at the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies in the Philippines. In addition, he chairs the Applied Theology Department and is Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program.

In 1923 Thomas Chisholm sent this hymn to his coworker, William M. Runyan, who set it to music. In 1954 Runyan recalled, "I wrote harmonies to some 20 or 25 of [Chisholm's] poems. This particular poem held such an appeal that I prayed most earnestly that my tune might carry over its message in a worthy way."

Thomas Obediah Chisholm was born near Franklin, Kentucky, July 29, 1866. After only an eighth-grade education in a small country school, he became the teacher himself at age 16! At 21 he was associate editor of his hometown's paper, the Franklin Favorite. After his conversion in a revival meeting conducted by H. C. Morrison, Chisholm accepted the preacher's invitation to move to Louisville and become office editor and business manager of his paper, the Pentecostal Herald. He was ordained a Methodist minister in 1903, but because of ill health, he was able to serve as pastor for only one year. After five years on a farm near Winona Lake, Indiana, he became a life insurance agent there, and continued that work in Vineland, New Jersey, until retirement in 1953.

Of the more than 1,200 poems he wrote, some 800 were published, and a number were set to music by a dozen of the best-known gospel song composers of that time. Fanny Crosby took a great interest in his early writing and did much to encourage him. He said of his work, "I have sought to be true to the Word, and to avoid flippant and catchy titles and treatment. I have greatly desired that each hymn or poem might have some definite message to the hearts for whom it was written." Another lyric by Chisholm that has had wide usage is "Living for Jesus a life that is true." He died at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, February 29, 1960.

William Marion Runyan was born January 21, 1870, at Marion, New York, the son of a Methodist minister. As a youth he showed musical talent, playing the organ for church at age 12. Ordained a Methodist minister at age 21, he served several pastorates in Kansas for 12 years before his appointment as evangelist for the Central Kansas Methodist Conference in 1903. After 20 years in this work, he was forced by increasing deafness to take up other duties, and became associated with John Brown University, Sulphur Springs, Arkansas. He pastored the Federated Church and edited the Christian Worker Magazine from 1923 to 1925. Until his retirement in 1948, he did some work for Moody Bible Institute and served as an editor for Hope Publishing Company. Wheaton College conferred on him the honorary Litt.D. in 1948. Death came at Pittsburgh, Kansas, on July 29, 1957.

The Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, published in 1985, was the first Adventist hymnal to include this hymn.

--Adapted from Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White, Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, 1988, pp. 150-151.

In the spring of 1862 Joseph Henry Gilmore, a Baptist minister, visited the city of Philadelphia. He was invited to address the midweek prayer meeting at the First Baptist church. He spoke there of God's leadership, using part of the Shepherd Psalm as a basis for his talk. He was so impressed by the simple words "He leadeth me" that he continued to discuss this theme at the home of his host, Deacon Wattson of Arch Street, Philadelphia. His mind was so full of the thought of God's guidance in every phase of life that there and then he wrote these four stanzas in pencil, and passed them on to his wife without comment. Without telling her husband, she sent the poem to a religious periodical, The Watchman and Reflector in Boston. It appeared in print in the December 4, 1862, issue, still without his knowledge. Three years later Gilmore was to preach in the Baptist church in Rochester, New York. Taking up a hymnbook and opening it at random, he was astonished to find his own poem set to music. He did not recognize nor acknowledge his authorship of the refrain until his wife's death some years later and he discovered his original manuscript among his papers, complete with a refrain, but of two lines only.

The words are a very free paraphrase of part of the Shepherd Psalm: "He leadeth me beside the still waters. . . . Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me" (Ps. 23:2, 4).

Gilmore was born in Boston on April 29, 1834, and educated at Brown University and Newton Theological Seminary. He was ordained into the Baptist ministry in 1862 and served at Fisherville, New Hampshire, for a year. Then he was private secretary to his father, the governor of New Hampshire, but after one year he began pastoring the Baptist church in Rochester, New York. In 1868 he was appointed professor of logic and English literature at the University of Rochester; he held that position until he retired in 1911. He died at Rochester on July 23, 1918.

The tune, sometimes called HE LEADETH ME, or AUGHTON, was composed by William Batchelder Bradbury (1816-1868) was published in his The Golden Censer, 1864. Bradbury had noticed Gilmore's hymn in The Watchman and Reflector, enlarged the refrain, and wrote the tune to fit the words.

The first Adventist hymnal to include this hymn was Hymns and Tunes, published in 1886.

--From Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White, Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, 1988, pp. 510-511.