Let the Lower Lights Be Burning

Brightly beams our Father’s mercy From His lighthouse evermore...

So opens Let the Lower Lights Be Burning, written by Philip Paul Bliss.

Bliss was a prolific writer of hymns, some of which are universally known - like It Is Well With My Soul. Though he was not blessed with a long life (he didn't see his 40th birthday), nevertheless he accomplished much and left quite a musical legacy.

These are the lyrics to Let the Lower Lights Be Burning in their entirety:

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.
Dark the night of sin has settled,
Loud the angry billows roar;
Eager eyes are watching, longing,
For the lights along the shore.
Trim your feeble lamp, my brother;
Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor,
In the darkness may be lost.