The Guiding Star

Author: Harriet Auber

Auber, Harriet, daughter of Mr. James Auber, b. in London, Oct. 4, 1773. During the greater part of her quiet and secluded life she resided at Broxbourne and Hoddesdon, Herts, and died at the latter place on the 20th Jan., 1862. Miss Auber wrote devotional and other poetry, but only a portion of the former was published in her Spirit of the Psalms, in 1829. This collection is mainly her work, and from it some useful versions of the Psalms have been taken and included in modern hymn-books, about 20 appearing in Spurgeon's Our Own Hymn Book, 1866. Miss Auber's name is widely known, but it is principally through her exquisite lyric, "Our blest Redeemer, ere He breathed," and the Epiphany hymn, "Bright was the guiding star that led." (For criti… Go to person page >

Bright was the guiding star that led. Harriet Auber. [Epiphany.] First published in her Spirit of the Psalms, 1829, p. 142, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. In America it has attained to a much greater popularity than in Great Britain, being found in many collections, sometimes attributed to the Rev. H. F. Lyte, and again to Miss C. Elliott. Original text in Lord Selborne's Book of Praise, 1862-7, p. 46, and Dr. Hatfield's Church Hymn Book, 1872, No. 363.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)