I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Isaiah 41:13

Introduction

portrait
Thomas A. Dorsey
1899–1993

Words: Tho­mas A. Dor­sey, 1932.

Music: Adapt­ed by Tho­mas Dor­sey from the tune Mait­land, by George N. Al­len, 1844 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
George N. Allen
1812–1877

Origin of the Song

Dorsey wrote this song in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, af­ter his wife Net­tie died while giv­ing birth to a child (who al­so died short­ly there­af­ter). Dor­sey sang the song for his friend, Gos­pel singer The­o­dore Frye, and Frye’s choir sang it the next Sun­day at the Eb­en­e­zer Bap­tist Church.

SPECIAL NOTICE: The song lyr­ics and MI­DI file for this par­tic­u­lar piece of in­spir­a­tion mu­sic are here for the per­son­al en­joy­ment of the vis­i­tors to the Cy­ber Hym­nal™, and are pro­vid­ed through the cour­te­sy of the co­py­right own­ers and War­ner Bros. Pub­li­cations. Please know that any dup­li­ca­tion, adap­ta­tion and/or trans­mis­sion of this co­py­right­ed mu­sic­al con­tent re­quires the prior writ­ten con­sent of the co­py­right own­ers and War­ner Bros. Pub­li­ca­tions U.S. Inc. Un­au­tho­rized us­es are an in­fringe­ment of the co­py­right laws of the Unit­ed States and oth­er coun­tries, and are pun­ish­a­ble there­un­der.

Lyrics

Precious Lord, take my hand,
Lead me on, let me stand,
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;
Through the storm, through the night,
Lead me on to the light:

Refrain

Take my hand, precious Lord,
Lead me home.

When my way grows drear,
Precious Lord, linger near,
When my life is almost gone,
Hear my cry, hear my call,
Hold my hand lest I fall:

Refrain

When the darkness appears
And the night draws near,
And the day is past and gone,
At the river I stand,
Guide my feet, hold my hand:

Refrain