"Let the Lower Lights be Burning"

"my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." - Hosea 4:6

In 1871, a ship was approaching the harbor of Cleveland. The captain, noticing only one light as they drew near — that from the lighthouse —asked the pilot if he was quite sure that it was Cleveland harbor, as other lights should have been burning to illuminate the rocks along the harbor mouth. The pilot replied that he was quite sure it was Cleveland, whereupon the captain inquired:

'Where are the low­er lights to mark the shore?'
'Gone out, sir.'
'Can you make the har­bor?'
'We must, or we will per­ish, sir!'

And with a strong hand and a brave heart, the old pi­lot turned the wheel. But alas, in the dark­ness he missed the channel, and with a crash upon the rocks the boat was shiv­ered, and ma­ny lives were lost in a wat­ery grave.

 
As D.L. Moody related the news of this maritime disaster to his congregation, he made this appeal:

"The Mas­ter will take care of the great light-house: let us keep the low­er lights burn­ing!"

Among Moody’s hearers that evening was Mr. Philip P. Bliss, the well-known hymn writer, and the striking story at once suggested to him one of his most popular hymns: "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning."

This song is really powerful for me because so many of my friends and I wrecked our lives on the rocks (just like that ship) in part because the "Lower Lights" that should have been burning were forcefully extinguished in the name of "Tolerance." 

As I started to describe in my (1/8/2013) post "St. Joseph, the Navy Seal," the ministry and evangelism efforts that I've felt God has led me to over the past year has been all about frantically lighting "the lower lights." 

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father." - Matthew 5:14-16


"Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path" - Psalm 119:105


"giving thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light. He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." - Colossians 1:12-14

"For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God." - John 3:20-21


  "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning." (lyrics) 
Brightly beams our Father's mercy from his lighthouse evermore But to us he gives the keeping of the lights along the shore
 
Let the lower lights be burning, send a gleam across the wave Some poor fainting struggling sailor, 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
 
Let the lower lights be burning, send a gleam across the wave Some poor fainting struggling sailor, you may rescue you may save
 
Trim your feeble lamp my brother, some poor sailor tempest tossed Trying now to make the harbor in the darkness may be lost
 
Let the lower lights be burning, send a gleam across the wave Some poor fainting struggling seaman, you may rescue you may save