Rector’s Reflections
Monday 24th February 2025
Guide me O Thou Great Redeemer: A Hymn and its Background
I wonder if you have a favourite hymn? There are so many to choose from, but I think it’s hard to beat Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer . Many people will have probably sung this at some stage in their lives, if only at a rugby match! But what of the hymn’s background? Who wrote it? Why was it written? What do the words actually mean? I thought it might be interesting to explore some of these questions in the days ahead.
To start with, a few words about the man who wrote the hymn. His name was William Williams, and he was a Welshman who lived back in the 18th Century. William wrote in both Welsh and English, and was a prolific author. The word “prolific” is probably an understatement, as he published nearly 90 books, pamphlets and tracts during his lifetime. He could turn his hand to poetry as well as prose, and he is regarded as one of the giants of Welsh literature.
William lived his whole life as a committed Christian, although his spiritual journey was not quite as straightforward as one might have expected. His father, John Williams, was the son of a prosperous farmer and an elder at a Congregational church, and he grew up within the Nonconformist tradition. As a young man, William studied medicine, and it was quite possible that he would pursue a career as a doctor. But his life took a different direction when he was about 20 years old, after hearing a sermon preached by a great Welsh preacher called Howell Harris. As a result of this, William decided to join the Church of England, and in 1740 he was ordained Deacon by the Bishop of St David’s.
What happened next? Well, the usual thing would be for Willam to be ordained priest and to work (usually for a pittance) as someone’s assistant, until he found a parish of his own. This would provide him with some degree of financial security, and enable him to get married and settle down to family life. This would have been the standard career path for most Church of England clergymen ordained in 1740, and for the next 200 years.
But William’s life turned out to be quite different from the norm. He felt called to go out and about and to preach the gospel to anyone who would hear the good news. This was one of the themes of the new Methodist movement within the Church of England, and in due course William was recognised as one of the leaders of the Welsh Methodist movement. This commitment to travelling around as a roving evangelist posed a problem for the authorities in the Church of England, because the whole Church of England system was (and still is) based on clergy staying put in one place. The tension between William and the Church authorities was heightened by sone differences of opinion on theological matters: for example, William omitted the sign of the cross at baptism. Things came to a head: the Church of England refused to ordain William priest, and William resigned his curacies. William could no longer hope for a career within the Church of England. He had burned his bridges. But he was still a young man, in his early 20s, and he had the rest of his life ahead of him.
So what was he to do next? He decided to focus on doing what he did best: preaching and teaching the gospel. He joined a branch of the Methodist movement called the Calvinistic Methodists, and sent his time preaching, writing hymns and helping new and existing Christians to grow in their faith.
After a few years in this new role, William felt he was in a position to settle down a little, and start a family. Aged about 30 or so, he married Mary Frances, and they settled down to live on the farm where William’s mother had been brought up. This farm was at Pantycelyn, near Llandovery, in Carmarthenshire, and so William was sometimes known simply as “Pantycelyn”.
William died in 1791, aged 73. During his lifetime, both England and Wales experienced a significant religious revival, which lead to the emergence of the Methodist movement and much else beside. William’s preaching and above all his writings contributed significantly to this revival, the consequences of which are still with us today. We shall explore this further in tomorrow’s reflections, but suffice it to say, if we were to ask who was the most influential Welshman of the 18th century, the answer might very well be William Williams of Pantycelyn.