「耶和華是我的牧者，我必不至缺乏。…祂『領』我在可安歇的水邊。…為自己的名『引導』我走義路。」（詩篇廿三篇）哦！祂帶領我，祂是親手在帶領我，這一個何等甘美的思想！在教會詩歌史中，多少稱頌主是好牧者的詩歌，皆由此一詩篇而產生。「祂帶領我」（聖徒詩歌第479首）就是其中傳誦最廣的一首。

這首詩歌的作者是紀摩爾弟兄（Joseph. H. Gilmore），於主後一八三四年四月廿九日出生在美國波士頓城，他父親其曾任新罕布什爾州（New Hampshire）的州長。他自幼即渴慕事奉主，雖曾獲得博士學位，他卻有一個跟隨主的心志，願獻上自己，一生擺在教會中，成為主有用的器皿。在他父親出任州長時，曾是他私人秘書，後在大學及神學院教希伯來文、邏輯學、修辭學及英國文學，並出版相關的教課書，也寫有其他詩歌，但最獲贊譽的卻是這首他在廿八歲時寫的詩歌。幾乎各國的詩歌集都選有此詩。

主後一八六二年初正值美國南北戰爭，人心惶惶，當時紀摩爾弟兄來到賓夕法尼亞州的費城，參加當地教會晚間的禱告聚會。會中他起來交通詩篇廿三篇的感覺，說到基督是信徒的牧者，一路親手引領群羊，他的感覺特別著重在『領』字。以他的聰明、學識、家世、環境，他盡可作一領導者，無需他人引領，但在實際生活體驗中，他深覺人的能力有限，必需依靠神的帶領才能經過一切憂患。

散會後，他客宿在華特生弟兄（Bro. Watson）家中，大家仍熱烈地討論剛才釋放的信息，神是如此的慈愛，在日常生活中奇妙地帶領信徒們。就在這時，紀弟兄的靈感如潮水般湧出，他立即從口袋裡拿出鉛筆，在一張紙片上寫下了這首詩。返家後，紀摩爾弟兄順手將那張紙遞給他的妻子，過後也就忘了。但是他的妻子卻被詩中的靈深深地摸著，覺得有刊出的必要，讓更多人能得幫助，於是她就悄悄地把它投寄波士頓教會的報紙。隨後作曲家柏萊布雷（William B. Bradbury 1816-1868），讀到這首詩時，十分喜愛，便自動配上樂曲，就成了今天我們所唱的這首詩歌。

事隔三年之後，紀弟兄應邀到羅徹斯特城（Rochester）去講道，聚會開始時，他手裡拿著當地教會新編的一本詩集，隨即翻開負責弟兄所題的詩歌，出人意料地，竟是他三年前在費城所寫的「祂帶領我」！迄今百年來，教會中很少有不會唱這首詩歌的；並且只要能唱上幾遍，就沒有人不喜愛它，因其中譜出了基督徒的一生，從中的確能唱出羊對牧人的感覺。

為紀念此一偉大的詩歌，一九二六年六月一日，美國協和媒氣公司特在辦公大廈中，建立一座美麗的銅牌，上面鐫刻著這首詩歌的全文，以及產生的簡史，事實上今天這首詩已銘刻在每一個唱詩者的心版上，且將永不泯滅。願我們一生經歷這位牧者的引領，直等到行完今生的路程，靠祂恩典完全得勝，那時我們將與作者的心靈發出共鳴：「因你至終親手領我」。

Joseph H. Gilmore (1834-1918)

Courtesy of Rush Rhees Library

Words: Joseph H. Gilmore, 1862.

Music: William B. Bradbury, Golden Censer (New York: 1864) (MIDI, score).

William B. Bradbury (1816-1868)

As a young man who recently had been graduated from Brown University and Newton Theological Institution, I was supplying for a couple of Sundays the pulpit of the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia [Pennsylvania]. At the mid-week service, on the 26th of March, 1862, I set out to give the people an exposition of the Twenty-third Psalm, which I had given before on three or four occasions, but this time I did not get further than the words “He Leadeth Me.” Those words took hold of me as they had never done before, and I saw them in a significance and wondrous beauty of which I had never dreamed.

It was the darkest hour of the Civil War. I did not refer to that fact—that is, I don’t think I did—but it may subconsciously have led me to realize that God’s leadership is the one significant fact in human experience, that it makes no difference how we are led, or whither we are led, so long as we are sure God is leading us.

At the close of the meeting a few of us in the parlor of my host, good Deacon Wattson, kept on talking about the thought which I had emphasized; and then and there, on a blank page of the brief from which I had intended to speak, I penciled the hymn, talking and writing at the same time, then handed it to my wife and thought no more about it. She sent it to The Watchman and Reflector, a paper published in Boston, where it was first printed. I did not know until 1865 that my hymn had been set to music by William B. Bradbury. I went to Rochester [New York] to preach as a candidate before the Second Baptist Church. Going into their chapel on arrival in the city, I picked up a hymnal to see what they were singing, and opened it at my own hymn, “He Leadeth Me.”

	中文	英文
一	祂帶領我！此意何美！此言何等滿有安慰！無論何在，無論何作，仍有神手來帶領我；	He leadeth me, O blessèd thought! O words with heav’nly comfort fraught! Whate’er I do, where’er I be Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.
（副）	祂帶領我，祂帶領我，祂是親手在帶領我；無論如何，我都隨著，因祂親手在帶領我。	He leadeth me, He leadeth me, By His own hand He leadeth me; His faithful follower I would be, For by His hand He leadeth me.
二	有時似墮痛苦深淵，有時似在快樂伊甸；或遇靜水，或遭風波，都有神手來帶領我。	Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom, Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom, By waters still, over troubled sea, Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me.
三	主阿，願你緊握我手，永無埋怨隨你而走；苦樂求你為我定奪，我靠你手來帶領我。	Lord, I would place my hand in Thine, Nor ever murmur nor repine; Content, whatever lot I see, Since ’tis my God that leadeth me.
四	等我行完今生路程，靠你憐憫能以得勝；死河寒波我亦不躲，因你至終親手領我。	And when my task on earth is done, When by Thy grace the vict’ry’s won, E’en death’s cold wave I will not flee, Since God through Jordan leadeth me.