King of my life, I crown thee now,
Thine shall the glory be;
Lest I forget thy thorn crowned brow,
Lead me to Calvary.
Show me the tomb where thou wast laid,
Tenderly mourned and wept;
Angels in robes of light arrayed
Guarded thee whilst thou slept.
Let me like Mary, through the gloom,
Come with a gift to thee;
Show to me now the empty tomb,
Lead me to Calvary.
May I be willing, Lord, to bear
Daily my cross for thee;
Even thy cup of grief to share,
Thou hast borne all for me.
Refrain
Lest I forget Gethsemane,
Lest I forget thine agony;
Lest I forget thy love for me,
Lead me to Calvary.
— Jennie Evelyn Hussey (1874–1958)
The purpose of devotional poems that focus on the cross of Christ is to lead us, in our thoughts and feelings, to Calvary. Thus this particular poem is a fitting choice to begin this section of the anthology. Its author was a Quaker who suffered from debilitating rheumatism during the last forty years of her life, during which she also cheerfully cared for her invalid sister. She wrote “Lead Me to Calvary” during Passion Week and first published it in 1921.
The poem is a prayer addressed to Jesus. Opening with an invocation to Jesus as King of my life, it addresses Christ no fewer than a dozen times, making this a poem of intense personal devotion. Its first two lines express adoration for Jesus, embodied in (a) the exalted epithet King of my life, (b) a metaphoric crowning of him, and (c) an ascription of glory to him. The rest of the opening stanza announces the theme of the poem—the need not to forget Christ’s crucifixion—accompanied by a way to ensure that we remember Christ’s crucifixion: being led to Calvary.
The remaining three stanzas are a list of petitions to Jesus as we follow the lead of the poem. Within this structure, we can discern a clear progression of thought. The second stanza composes the scene of Jesus in the tomb, which is portrayed, in an idealized way, as a scene of tender mourning in which Jesus is guarded by angels in robes of light. From the closed tomb we are led in the next stanza to think about the empty tomb of Easter. In the final stanza, we move beyond Holy Week with a resolve to bear Christ’s cross in our daily living. This too is a way for us not to forget Gethsemane and Calvary.
We should note in passing that biographers of Hussey record that when visitors observed her cheerful devotion to her invalid sister, she often referenced Luke 9:23, which records Jesus’ statement “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
The refrain casts the poem in a different light. In common usage, the conjunction lest introduces a fear or danger that needs to be countered, as in “He grabbed the railing lest he fall.” The danger that the refrain names is the danger of forgetting the suffering of Christ. Its final line, which is unusually elevated to the status of the poem’s title, tells us how such forgetfulness can be countered: by being led to Calvary through remembrance and contemplation.
The poem enacts the very thing for which it prays, as it prompts us to be led to Calvary by remembering Christ’s sacrifice and by embracing it with saving faith.
“Lead Me to Calvary” is a prayer that we will be able to remember the
sacrifice of Jesus, lest it be forgotten to our spiritual harm. Hebrews 12:3 is similar in substance and rhetorical form: “Consider [remember] him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”
—Leland Ryken, author, Poetry of Redemption
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