It must
have been an illustration that was unique, involving perhaps the speaker’s
delivery or the poignancy of the story’s ending, capturing Philip Bliss’s
attention one night, causing him to imagine and create a song. “Let the Lower
Lights Be Burning” were actually some words that Bliss’s friend spoke that gave
him the mental picture and the words he needed to spark this musical creation
in 1871. Had the 33-year old Bliss been at sea before, heightening his
awareness as he listened to the speaker that night? Did he know someone who needed to heed the
words he composed? What are lower lights, and why are they apparently necessary
if we have lighthouses (like the one shown here)?
Philip Paul
Bliss was a gifted hymn-writer of the 19th Century whose career
output was only abbreviated because of his untimely death, five years after he
composed this song about lights. He reportedly heard many messages that spurred
the poetry he composed, including through the well-known speaker Dwight Moody. It was one of Moody’s stories, told of a ship
that foundered on a rocky shoal in Lake Erie outside of Cleveland, that gave
him the inspiration for “Let the Lower Lights…”. From a far distance, a
lighthouse is all a sailor needs to safely guide his navigation, but that
changes the closer one draws to land. Rocks and sandbars are a deadly hazard,
which ‘lower lights’ illuminate – if they’re working. One hardly hears about
these lights, perhaps because the bigger, more obvious lighthouses get the
attention. In Moody’s narrative, the failure of these lower lights left the
ship blind, and ultimately wrecked with loss of life. The analogy is clear. God
– the lighthouse – never fails, but we mortals cannot do without other, lesser
lights to help us through difficult passages. Moody and Bliss wanted their
hearers to notice that in God’s Divine wisdom, He needs us to watch out for each
others’ welfare – we’re lights for our peers. I warn you, and you warn me, when
danger is nearby. You and I help protect each other.
Whatever
trails he followed, Philip Bliss needed others to help his feet see the hazards,
just like any of us. Ironically, it was a train wreck due to a collapsed bridge
that ended the composer’s life in 1876. Mortality touches all of us. What about
the life of my soul - what threatens it? These are easier to discount, since no
immediate, tangible, penalties may result. But, Bliss and Moody would warn us
of these, and the ‘Father’s mercy’ (verse 1) and ‘sin’ (verse 2) we need to
see. These fellows traveled a lot, spreading the news about God, so they must
have been conscious of things that might go wrong along the way, including transportation
that would falter. Whether it’s by land, or sea, or air, no method is failsafe,
particularly when it gets dark. Is there a light where you’re headed? If you’re
safe, even after tripping, are you warning that next person behind you?
See more
information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of
Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J.
Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing
Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck,
Kregel Publications, 1990; and 101 More Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W.
Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985.
Also see these links: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/l/e/t/letlower.htm
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