Footsteps of Jesus

• Chorus:

Footprints of Jesus, That make the pathway glow;

We will follow the steps of Jesus Where’er they go.

• Verse 1

Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling,

Come, follow Me!

And we see where Thy footprints falling

Lead us to Thee.

• Verse 2

Though they lead o’er the cold, dark mountains,

Seeking His sheep;

Or along by Siloam’s fountains,

Helping the weak.

• Verse 3

If they lead through the temple holy,

Preaching the Word;

Or in homes of the poor and lowly,

Serving the Lord.

• Verse 4

Though, dear Lord, in Thy pathway keeping,

We follow Thee;

Through the gloom of that place of weeping,

Gethsemane!

• Verse 5

If Thy way and its sorrows bearing,

We go again,

Up the slope of the hillside, bearing

Our cross of pain.

• Verse 6

By and by, through the shining portals,

Turning our feet,

We shall walk, with the glad immortals,

Heav’n’s golden street.

• Verse 7

Then, at last, when on high He sees us,

Our journey done,

We will rest where the steps of Jesus

End at His throne.

Mary Bridges Canedy-Slade (1826-1882)

Mary was born on January 18, 1826 in Fall River, Massachusetts, where she would remain her entire life. She was the eleventh of thirteen children born to William and Susan Luther Canedy.

She was a teacher and served as assistant editor of The New England Journal of Education and editor of Wide Awake. She was well-educated and became a minister's wife (her pastor before he was her husband), teacher, and poet. She was assistant editor of The New England Journal of Education. She also authored hymns, Sunday school materials and books on education, primarily used for training teachers. She authored a children's magazine, “Wide-awake”.

She and her husband, Albion King Slade (M. June 2, 1850), were active in the underground railroad. The Canary house was one of six known safe houses in Fall River. The conductors and their "cargo" were criminals, breaking the Fugitive Slave Law. The white conductors risked steep fines and imprisonment. She spent her whole life living in the same town.

Mary Slade wrote "Footsteps of Jesus" 1871. This was just 1 of over 100 hymns written by Mary. Footprints of Jesus was first published in The Amaranth, a supplemental Sunday school collection for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mary Slade lived just 11 years longer (age 56) after composing this song of devotion to God. She was described once as a “warm-hearted Christian woman”. She died on April 15, 1882 in Fall River, the city she was born in.

At the time of her death she was editorof the journal "Wide Awake". It was pitched at children, a theme that likewise influenced her previous venture as an editor of the New England Journal of Education.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAiNcnvsII4&t=13s
• http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/s/l/a/slade_mbc.htm
• http://www.hymnary.org/person/Slade_M
• http://www.ccel.org/ccel/nutter/hymnwriters.Slade_NB.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lothrop (A biography of the man who published Wide Awake, Slade’s occupational-editorial effort until she died.)
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/239094310/mary-bridges-slade

• 335-337 Pine St./190 Rock St. Fall River, Massachussetts — Slade House