Introduction

Words: Fan­ny Cros­by, in Roy­al Dia­dem, ed­it­ed by Ro­bert Low­ry & How­ard Doane (New York & Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: Big­low & Main, 1873), page 36. Some hym­nals give the lyri­cist as Miss Vi­ola V. A. [Van Al­styne], one of Fan­ny’s ma­ny pseu­do­nyms.

Music: W. How­ard Doane (🔊 pdf nwc).

In the pro­phet’s mind the peo­ple were as a tra­vel­ler who has tak­en a self-chos­en path, and finds that it leads him to a place of per­il.

Is it not well that they should stop and ask where the old paths (li­ter­al­ly, the eter­nal paths; the words go­ing, as in Je­re­miah 18:15, be­yond the mere an­ti­qui­ty of the na­tion’s life) were, on which their fa­thers had tra­velled safe­ly.

Of these old paths they were to choose that which was most dis­tinct­ly the good way, the way of right­eous­ness, and there­fore of peace and health al­so.

The call, how­ev­er, was in vain. The peo­ple chose to tra­vel still in the broad way that led them to de­struct­ion.

Ellicott’s Com­ment­ary for Eng­lish Read­ers, Charles John El­li­cott (Lon­don, Par­is, New York & Mel­bourne: Cas­sell & Com­pa­ny, 1905)