Let the Lower Lights Be Burning

Representative Text

1 Brightly beams our Father’s mercy
From His lighthouse evermore;
But to us He gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.

Refrain:
Let the lower lights be burning!
Send a gleam across the wave!
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
You may rescue, you may save.

2 Dark the night of sin has settled,
Loud the angry billows roar;
Eager eyes are watching, longing,
For the lights along the shore. [Refrain]

3 Trim your feeble lamp, my brother!
Some poor seaman, tempest-tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor,
In the darkness may be lost. [Refrain]

Source: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal #267

Author: P. P. Bliss

Philip P. Bliss (b. Clearfield County, PA, 1838; d. Ashtabula, OH, 1876) left home as a young boy to make a living by working on farms and in lumber camps, all while trying to continue his schooling. He was converted at a revival meeting at age twelve. Bliss became an itinerant music teacher, making house calls on horseback during the winter, and during the summer attending the Normal Academy of Music in Genesco, New York. His first song was published in 1864, and in 1868 Dwight L. Moody advised him to become a singing evangelist. For the last two years of his life Bliss traveled with Major D. W. Whittle and led the music at revival meetings in the Midwest and Southern United States. Bliss and Ira D. Sankey published a popular series of hym… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Brightly beams our Father's mercy
Title: Let the Lower Lights Be Burning
Author: P. P. Bliss (1871)
Meter: 8.7.8.7 with refrain
Language: English
Refrain First Line: Let the lower lights be burning
Notes: Arabic translation: See "إنهضوا يا مؤمنونا" by خليل عساف بشارة; German translation: See "Herrlich strahlt des Vater's gnade", "Leuchtend strahlt des Vater's gnade" by Anna von Weling and Georg von Viebahn, "Lichthell strahlt des ew'gen Gnade" by William Horn, "Lichthell strahlt des Meisters gnade", "Prächtig strahlt des Meister's gnade" by G. Golder, "Seht wie Jesu Gnadenfeuer" by Ernst Gebhardt; Spanish translation: See "Brillan rayos de clemencia", "Esparcid la luz de Cristo" by M. A. Lezcano, "La merced de nuestro Padre"; Swedish translation: See "Evigt stråler Fadern's karlek"; Tagalog translation: See "Ti ayat ti Dios agraniag"
Copyright: Public Domain

Timeline

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Instances (1 - 100 of 537)

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