Arglwydd, arwain trwy’r anialwch

translated/adapted as
Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (Redeemer)

with
CAPEL Y DDÔL
LLAN BAGLAN
JORDAN / RHUDDLAN
CWM RHONDDA

I. Welsh Origins

This hymn is from the pen of William Williams of Pantycelyn (1717–1791), an itinerant preacher of Methodist persuasion, originally written in Welsh, beginning “Arglwydd, arwain trwy’r anialwch,” and first published in Caniadau y rhai sydd ar y Môr o Wydr (“The Songs of Those Upon the Sea of Glass,” Carmarthen, 1762 | Fig. 1a); not published in 1745, as is sometimes reported. The original hymn contained six stanzas of six lines, headed “Gweddi am Nerth i fyned trwy anialwch y Byd” (“A Prayer for strength to go through the world’s desert”).

Three other editions of Caniadau followed in 1763, 1764, and 1773 (Fig. 1b), with a slight change in the third line from “ynwi” to “ynnof,” plus some changes to capitalization and spelling.

Alan Luff, a noted scholar of Welsh hymnody, offered this context for the writing of the hymn:

The beginning of the Evangelical Revival in Wales is usually dated 1735. It had two virtually independent centres, one around Hywel Harris in south-east Wales and the other around Daniel Rowland in south-west Wales. After some years of independent work, the two men met and thereafter took counsel together regularly, but there was always friction. Neither would allow first place to the other, and Whitefield was called in to try to bring some common understanding. By 1746, there was outright opposition between them. In 1750, there was an open split that became formalized in the next two years as the two men retreated to their own particular spheres of influence. The revival at large slackened. By 1759, there had appeared a will to work together again and this was achieved by May 1762; the seal upon the new concord appeared as a new Revival broke out in many places. . . .

I see his original version of “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah” as a prayer from the blackest period of the division. . . . These were desert days, and there was indeed a feeling of weakness and helplessness from which Williams cries out for guidance and for strength. It is his psalm of lament.[1]

H.A. Hodges, a scholar of Williams’ hymns, put the 1762 collection in this perspective:

The publication of Môr o Wydr in 1762 put new heart into the movement. At Llangeitho, for instance, on the Sunday when the new book was first used, it produced nothing less than a fresh revival.[2]

Textual Assessment

The original Welsh draws heavily on imagery from the Exodus. The third stanza speaks of the fiery pillar and the cloud leading by night and by day (Ex. 13:21) and also of the manna from heaven (Ex. 16); the fourth stanza speaks of water from the rock (Ex. 17); the fifth of crossing Jordan (Josh. 3). Of the fifth stanza, Luff remarked:

Sadly, the last two lines of the original just won’t go into satisfactory English: “Victory, victory, make me cry it aloud in the flood.” Williams pictures his pilgrim going through the flood waters shouting “Buddugoliaeth”; this means “victory,” and was, like “Gogoniant” (“glory”), one of the words shouted for hours by ecstatic converts.[3]

The final stanza speaks of the eternal victory of Christ over death, hell, and Satan, won on the hill of Calvary.

For a literal English translation by E. Wyn James, see this document: PDF

II. Translation: Peter Williams

The hymn was translated into English by Peter Williams (1723–1796), an independent Methodist preacher who led a congregation at a chapel he built on his farm, Gelli Lednais, in the parish of Llandyfaelog, Carmarthenshire. He is usually described as not being directly related to William Williams. He included his translation in a small collection, Hymns on Various Subjects (Carmarthen: J. Ross, 1771), accounting for stanzas 1, 4, and 6 of the Welsh.

Peter Williams included an abbreviated form of the original heading, simply “Praying for strength.” Whereas the Welsh uses the term “Arglwydd” (“Lord”), Williams used the common English transliteration for YHWH, “Jehovah,” a term not universally embraced among Christians. The common substitution of “Redeemer” occurred as early as 1778 in Aaron Williams’ Psalmody in Miniature, in III Books (London), but otherwise was unknown until it appeared in Hymns Ancient & Modern with Appendix (1868).

In Williams’ line 5, the “Bread of heaven” is a transplant from the Welsh stanza 3, which Williams had omitted. Michael A.G. Haykin, a scholar of Christian history, made note of the meaning of the next line:

It needs noting that Williams’ use of the term “want” in the final line is the older meaning of that word, which has the idea of “being in want.” It is not our modern use of the word, which bears the idea of “desire.” Hence the line “till I want no more” does not mean “till I desire no more.” Rather, it is the idea of “Feed me till I am no more in need, till the hunger of my soul is satisfied.” This is why some modern hymnals re-phrase this line thus: “Feed me now and evermore.”[4]

Peter Williams’ stanzas 2 and 3 have not entered into common use.

III. Translation Attributed to William Williams

In 1772, an adapted English translation appeared in the Supplement to George Whitefield’s A Collection of Hymns for Social Worship, 17th ed. (Fig. 3), given in three stanzas of six lines, labeled “Christ a Sure Guide,” followed by another hymn of only one stanza in six lines, “A Warm Coal for a cold Heart,” beginning “Musing on my habitation.” A copy of this hymnal at John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, contains an additional leaf, pasted into the book, with these four stanzas combined and headed “Favourite Hymn Sung by Lady Huntingdon’s young Collegians. Printed by the desire of many Christian friends. Lord give it thy blessing!” This is apparently the same leaflet described by John Julian in 1892 in A Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 77. There are small differences between the two versions of the hymn, including lines 1.5, 2.2–3, 3.2, and 4.3. None of these hymns bore an author attribution.

As for Lady Huntingdon’s Young Collegians being named on the pasted-in leaflet, Welsh Methodist evangelist Howel Harris (1717–1773) had a printing press at his home in Trefeca in this period, very close to the location of the Countess of Huntingdon’s college in Talgarth, South Wales, so it is conceivable that the leaflet was printed at Trefeca. In fact, Williams Pantycelyn, Peter Williams, and Lady Huntingdon were all three at the anniversary meetings of the Countess’s College at Trefeca in 1769 and 1770. Pantycelyn was also at the anniversary meeting at Trefeca in 1771; Peter Williams’ presence there is less clear. Their attendance at the 1772 meeting is possible but unknown.

Williams Pantycelyn was also acquainted with George Whitefield. At the death of Whitefield, Williams wrote An Elegy on the Reverend Mr. G. Whitefield, A.M., Chaplain to the Right Honorable Countess of Huntingdon (1771). The editor of the first posthumous edition of Whitefield’s hymnal, 1772, is not known.

Around the same time as the Whitefield publication, the three-stanza text and the one-stanza text both appeared in The Collection of Hymns Sung in the Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapels in Sussex (Edinburgh: A. Donaldson, ca. 1772), unattributed. The collection was undated, but one copy formerly in the possession of William T. Brooke, as reported by John Julian, was inscribed “Elizabeth Featherstonehaugh, 1772,”[5] and this date coincides with the Whitefield publication above. The texts here are identical to the three-plus-one texts in Whitefield, except for the small shift from singular to plural in 3.2.

About two years later, the combined version appeared in The Collection of Hymns Sung in the Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapels (Bath: W. Gye), unattributed. This collection was undated, but William T. Brooke argued, “The date of this edition is not certain, but it must be very near to if not absolutely 1774.”[6] This version, like the leaflet, has “Bread of Heaven” (which is an extra syllable compared to “Bread of Heav’n”), it has a notable change at 1.6, “Feed me now and evermore,” and it preserves “fiery cloudy pillar” at 2.3. Notice also the addition of several Scripture references.

Curiously, the fourth stanza continued to be printed separately, but successively, in Whitefield’s hymnals, at least through 1798. There seems to be a corresponding tradition of these stanzas being known relatedly but separately, as can be seen in The Evangelical Magazine, October 1797, in a memorial to Rev. Torial Joss, a colleague of Whitefield’s. The writer remembered a recent service in which Joss “expiated largely upon the last line in the hymn, ‘Songs of praises I will ever give to thee,’” and Joss said he “knew the man who composed that hymn, and that he was lately gone to sing songs of praises before the throne” (Williams had died in 1791). Joss closed the service with the hymn “Musing on my habitation.”[7]

Considerations of Authorship

In the earliest printings, the author of this English version (separate or combined) was not credited. Additionally, this text did not appear in William Williams’ English collection Gloria in Excelsis (1772). It was unattributed in Richard Conyers’ Collection of Psalms and Hymns, 2nd ed. (1774; three stanzas), Martin Madan’s Collection of Psalms and Hymns, 8th ed. (1774; three stanzas), Lawrence Coughlan’s Select Collection, 3rd ed. (1775; four stanzas), Augustus Toplady’s Psalms and Hymns (1776; four stanzas), and elsewhere through at least 1800. John Rippon refrained from assigning an author through 30 editions of his hymnal, to 1832.

It is possible Peter Williams made both versions, although when his version was reprinted in other hymnals, it was usually credited to him.

In Thomas Westlake’s Selection of Hymns (1796), three stanzas were credited to “Robinson.” This was repeated in John Dobell’s A New Selection of Seven Hundred Evangelical Hymns (1806). Some Latter-Day Saints hymnals in the 20th century have likewise credited an altered version (“Guide us, O thou great Jehovah”) to an unknown Robinson.

Josiah Miller, writing in 1869, offered, “The translation into English has sometimes been attributed to W. Evans.”[8] Another name was put forward by John Gadsby in 1870, but he was certain it belonged to Williams:

His hymns, “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,” “Jesus, lead me by thy power,” are well known. The former is said to have been translated by Mr. Middleton and first published in 1793, but this cannot be, as I found it in Madan’s book, dated 1776. Beyond doubt, however, it is Williams’s.[9]

In the United States, the hymn had been frequently attributed to “Oliver” or “Olivers,” as early as 1837 in Select Hymns: Adapted to the Devotional Exercises of the Baptist Denomination, 2nd ed., but also in the venerable Plymouth Collection (1855). Hezekiah Butterworth offered a misguided interpretation in 1875, although he, like Gadsby, ultimately assigned it to Williams:

The much-used hymn beginning “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah!” is attributed to Olivers in nearly all American collections of hymns. We find it so credited in some of the more careful compilations, among them, Hymns for the Church Militant. It was written by William Williams, a Welsh preacher in the Welsh Calvinist-Methodist connection, in the times of Whitefield and Lady Huntingdon. Olivers, who was a musician as well as a poet, and himself a Welshman, supplied the music, and so his name became accidentally associated with the authorship of the hymn.[10]

By 1884, the wagons had circled around Williams as author and translator, as with Edwin Hatfield:

The hymn beginning “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah!” a great favorite, was printed in a leaflet form in 1773, and is a translation, by himself, of one of his Welsh hymns. Three only of its four stanzas are now used.[11]

Hatfield’s basis for settling on Williams is unclear, and John Julian’s adoption of the same position in 1892 is equally unclear and unstated, but this attribution is bolstered somewhat by the documented relationship between Williams Pantycelyn and the first two people to print the hymn: the Countess of Huntingdon and George Whitefield.

Textual Considerations

As a whole, this version of the hymn is not a line-for-line translation from the Welsh. The second English stanza combines the fire and cloud of the Welsh stanza 3 with the water from the rock from the Welsh stanza 4. The third English stanza is a combination of Welsh stanzas 5 and 6, covering the Jordan river and Hell’s destruction. The additional English stanza is like an extended meditation on the prospect of eternal life in Heaven, with a call echoing that of Revelation 22:20, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”

In considering other differences between the Welsh and the English, Alan Luff explained what he felt was an unfortunate or incongruent choice of style:

Williams’s Welsh, while it does have some older expressions, does not sound archaic to a present-day Welsh worshipper in the way that “thee” and “thou,” with their associated verb forms, do in English. Williams, however, naturally accepts the conventions of his time and uses “thou,” “thy,” and “thee” in his English version. As in French and German, the second person singular in Welsh remains the form for use to children and between close relations and friends. Children address their parents with the respectful second person plural. Over time, “thee” and “thou” in English have attained a sense of distance and respect, whereas the opposite was true in earlier times. When Williams speaks to Christ of “enjoying you” it is in the intimate form, and thus all we can do today is to use our present intimate form, “you.”[12]

IV. English Text: Additional Assessment

The hymn is very widely embraced and frequently reprinted. Popular author Kenneth Osbeck associated the hymn with Psalm 31:3 (“For You are my rock and my fortress; therefore, for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me”), and wrote, “The need for daily guidance is one of the believer’s greatest concerns. How easily our lives can go astray without the assurance of divine leadership.”[13] Frank Colquhoun added, “Another thing to note is that the hymn in its entirety is a prayer: a prayer for God’s care and protection along the road of life, and for a safe arrival ‘on Canaan’s side’ at the end of the pilgrimage”; and regarding the ending of the third stanza, he suggested, “The hymn writer had caught the spirit of the psalmist when he said, ‘I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth’ (Psalm 34:1). Praise is not intended to be an intermittent exercise, dependent on our changing moods and circumstances. It is for all times and seasons.”[14]

Literary scholar Leland Ryken asked readers to think more deeply about the Old Testament allusions:

But these striking allusions are only the foundation on which further poetic brilliance rests. The allusions are transmuted into metaphors that apply universally, not simply to Old Testament Israel. The wandering through the wilderness becomes the universal pilgrimage through life. The epithet “bread of heaven” refers not only to manna but to Jesus, who declared himself “the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32). The flowing water refers not only to the water miracles of the Exodus but also to the crystal healing stream flowing from God’s heavenly throne (see Rev. 22:1–2). The Jordan River is the archetypal river of death, and crossing it leads metaphorically to the Canaan of heaven.

The evocative epithet “death of death” is another poetic triumph. William Williams is almost as well known as a poet as he is a hymn writer, so it is entirely possible that he intended an allusion to the concluding words of John Donne’s famous sonnet on immortality: “Death, thou shalt die.” Even more likely, Williams, a Calvinistic Methodist, borrowed the words from the title of a Puritan classic: John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.[15]

Along similar lines, J.R. Watson commented, “William Williams Pantycelyn here produces the supreme example of biblical typology, in which the Old Testament episodes prefigure the life and work of Jesus Christ,”[16] but the way he carried this out was skillful:

Williams has a supreme poetic tact, which allows him to understate the typology, and yet signify it to the attentive reader, so that the singer/reader has to supply the imaginative connections. . . . The same understatement is found in the description of the soul treading the verge of Jordan, about to die and cross to the Promised Land: instead of Toplady’s naked, struggling, helpless figure [in “Rock of Ages”], Williams contents himself with “anxious fears”—which treat the problem of death seriously and theologically, but not dramatically.

The hymn is justly famous because it places the assurance of redemption so firmly in the context of an earthly life; and Williams has the good sense and poetic intuition to allow the reader/singer to make the connections, rather than stating them overtly. It is one of the greatest of evangelical hymns mainly because of its understatement.[17]

V. English Text: Optional Translation

One other translation worth noting is Alan Gaunt’s “Lead me, God, across the desert,” from Hymn Texts of Alan Gaunt (London: Stainer & Bell, 1991 | Fig. 6). In his version, which was based on a literal translation by John Richards, Gaunt utilized stanzas 1 and 3–6 of the Welsh. Alan Luff saw the distinguishing feature of Gaunt’s text as being more personal (or less formal) than the accepted English version, which is a better reflection of the Welsh. According to Luff, “He has faced the translator’s usual problems of having to produce verse that flows well and rhymes, and has inevitably lost some of the original’s directness of expression. The sense of the original is, however, very fairly presented.”[18]

VI. Tunes

In Welsh, the hymn is most commonly sung to CAPEL Y DDÔL or LLAN BAGLAN.

1. CAPEL Y DDÔL

CAPEL Y DDÔL (“The chapel of/in the meadow”) is by Joseph David Jones (1827–1870), a music teacher, who published this tune in his first collection, Y Pêr Ganiedydd (1846) when he was only 19. The name is possibly in reference to the old Wesleyan chapel in Melin-y-ddôl, Montgomeryshire (Powys), not far from his home of Llanfair Caereinion. This collection does not appear to have survived, but it was cited as the source of the tune when it was reprinted in Griffith Harris’s tune collection Halelwiah Drachefn: sef Casgliad o Donau, at wasanaeth yr addoliad dwyfol (“Hallelujah Again: Namely a Collection of Tunes, for Use in Divine Worship”) (Carmarthen: M. Jones, 1855) at no. 49. This version of the tune was printed in open score, melody in the third part. The range of the tune is only a fifth, making it easily singable. The version most commonly sung today has some slight rhythmic variances.

2. LLAN BAGLAN

This tune comes from a collection compiled by Afan Thomas, Eirin Afan, Rhan 1 (“Berries/fruits of Afan,” Vol. 1, 1916 | Fig. 8), where it appeared with the text “‘Cofia, f’enaid, gariad Iesu” (“Remember, my soul, the love of Jesus”) by Thomas Williams (1761–1844), printed in Tonic Sol-Fa notation. The tune is by Afan Thomas. Its first known association with Pantycelyn’s hymn was in the hymnal Y Llawlyfr Moliant Newydd (1955), but it is possible the pairing had previously appeared in locally produced programs for cymanfaoedd canu. 

3. JORDAN / RHUDDLAN

In English, the hymn first appeared with music in The Gospel Magazine, March 1775 (Fig. 9), where it was set to an uncredited, unnamed tune. This pairing was repeated in Aaron Williams’ Psalmody in Miniature, in III Books, 2nd ed. (London: The editor, 1778 | Fig. 10), where the tune was called JORDAN, in reference to the third stanza of the text. Both versions are effectively identical, utilizing only melody and bass with figured bass markings, which indicated the expected harmonization.

This pairing has been repeated in several other collections, including with the Welsh text. Williams’ own hymn collections did not recommend tune pairings, but his son, John Williams, edited Gwaith Prydyddawl y diweddar Barchedig William Williams (“The Poetic Works of the Late Reverend William Williams”) (Carmarthen: Jonathan Harris, 1811[–13]). The tune names in this collection no doubt reflected what was commonly used in the Methodist meetings of the time. For “Arglwydd, arwain trwy’r anialwch,” the recommended tune was JORDAN.

JORDAN is regarded as a minor-mode variant of the song “Dowch i’r frwydr” (“Come to Battle”), which had been included in Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards, 2nd ed. (1794 | Fig. 11), compiled by Edward Jones. The Gospel Magazine version is structured AAB, whereas in the Relicks version, both sections repeat.

In his work on The English Hymnal (1906 | Fig. 12), Ralph Vaughan Williams adapted and arranged this tune and called it RHUDDLAN. This version has been repeated in other hymnals.

4. CWM RHONDDA

For more than one hundred years now, the most popular tune setting in English has been the Welsh tune CWM RHONDDA, composed by John Hughes (1873–1932) for a singing festival (cymanfa ganu) or festival of praise (Gŵyl o Fawl) at the Baptist Capel Rhondda, Hopkinstown, Pontypridd, on 17 November 1907. One surviving copy of the program is held by the Pontypridd Museum, reproduced below. On the program, the date is “Tach. 1af, 1907,” which is 1 November 1907, a Friday, but this is regarded as a misprint, as newspaper accounts of the service put it on November 17, a Sunday. Notice how the tune was originally called RHONDDA; this was later changed to CWM RHONDDA in order to distinguish it from another tune called RHONDDA by M.O. Jones, which was already in circulation. The text here is “Wele’n sefyll rhwng y myrtwydd” (“See him stand among the myrtles”) by Ann Griffiths, which is still the preferred text for this tune in Wales.

Two versions of the tune have been in circulation, one in which the sopranos remain static in the penultimate phrase while the tenors descend, the other is the opposite. In the first printing (above), given in Tonic Sol-Fa notation, the sopranos are static on sol.

The first appearance of the tune in a hymnal was in Cân a Mawl (1918), an American collection, where it appeared with a Welsh text, “Peraidd ganodd sêr y boreu,” and the English hymn “Angels from the realms of glory.” In this version of the tune, the tenors are static on sol in the penultimate phrase while the sopranos descend.

The earliest printed pairing of “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah” with CWM RHONDDA was in The Musical Salvationist, April 1920. In Canada, this pairing was made in The Hymnary of the United Church of Canada (1930); in England, the pairing gained traction through the Methodist Hymn Book (1933), and in the same year, in the United States, it was given in The Hymnal (1933) of the Presbyterian Church.

by CHRIS FENNER
with E. WYN JAMES
and RHIDIAN GRIFFITHS
for Hymnology Archive
21 October 2023

Footnotes:

1. Alan Luff, “Guide me, O thou great redeemer/Jehova,” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 15, no. 6 (Apr. 1998), p. 134.

2. H.A. Hodges, Flame in the Mountains: William Pantycelyn, Ann Griffiths and the Welsh Hymn, edited by E. Wyn James (Ceredigion, Wales: Y Lolfa, 2017), p. 69: Amazon; see also R. Geraint Gruffydd, “The revival of 1762 and William Williams of Pantycelyn,” in Emyr Roberts and R. Geraint Gruffydd, Revival and Its Fruit (Bridgend: Evangelical Library of Wales, 1981).

3. Alan Luff, “Guide me, O thou great redeemer/Jehova,” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 15, no. 6 (Apr. 1998), p. 133.

4. Michael A.G. Haykin, “The Welsh Saints, 1714–1814: William Williams,” Union Publishing (17 May 2022): UP; Haykin’s analysis is based partly on Frank Colquhoun, “Life’s pilgrimage: Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,” Hymns that Live (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 1980), pp. 191–198.

5. John Julian, “Arglwydd arwain trwy’r anialwch,” A Dictionary of Hymnology (London: J. Murray, 1892), p. 77: HathiTrust

6. William T. Brooke, “Huntingdon’s Hymn Books,” A Dictionary of Hymnology (London: J. Murray, 1892), p. 543: HathiTrust

7. “Memoirs of the late Rev. Torial Joss of London,” The Evangelical Magazine (Oct. 1797), pp. 403–404.

8. Josiah Miller, “William Williams,” Singers and Songs of the Church (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1869), p. 222: Archive.org

9. John Gadsby, “William Williams,” Memoirs of the Principal Hymn-Writers & Compilers of the 17th, 18th, & 19th Centuries (London, J. Gadsby, 1870), p. 152: HathiTrust

10. Hezekiah Butterworth, “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,” The Story of the Hymns (New York: American Tract Society, 1875), p. 30: Archive.org

11. Edwin Hatfield, “William Williams,” The Poets of the Church (New York: A.D.F. Randolph & Company, 1884), p. 681: Archive.org

12. Alan Luff, “Guide me, O thou great redeemer/Jehova,” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 15, no. 6 (Apr. 1998), p. 135.

13. Kenneth Osbeck, “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,” Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Devotions (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1990), p. 13.

14. Frank Colquhoun, “Life’s pilgrimage: Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,” Hymns that Live (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 1980), pp. 194, 198.

15. Leland Ryken, “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,” 40 Favorite Hymns on the Christian Life (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2019), pp. 98–100.

16. J.R. Watson, “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,” An Annotated Anthology of Hymns (Oxford: University Press, 2002), p. 228.

17. J.R. Watson, The English Hymn (Oxford: University Press, 1997), pp. 275–276.

18. Alan Luff, “Guide me, O thou great redeemer/Jehova,” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 15, no. 6 (Apr. 1998), p. 135.

Related Resources:

David Stechholz & Joseph Herl, “Guide me, O thou great Redeemer,” Lutheran Service Book Companion to the Hymns, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), pp. 1469–1478.

Alan Luff, “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (Redeemer),” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology: CDH