Articles
Let The Lower Lights Be Burning
by Paul Stevens (Based on DL Moody sermon excerpts)
There was a popular protestant minister in the 1800s by the name of DL Moody. He was quite popular at the time, both in America and parts of Europe. There was a story that he used to share in some of his sermons that I want to share with you.
The story, which is based on real events, starts off sounding a bit like a good ghost story… It was a dark and stormy night. And this dark and stormy night took place in Lake Erie, north of the port of Cleveland Ohio. It was so dark and stormy that the stars and moon were impossible to see, things that you counted on to guide you at sea. As they approached the harbor, there was something else missing.
The captain, noticing only one light as they drew near (from the lighthouse) asked the pilot if he was quite sure that it was Cleveland harbor, as other lights should have been burning at the harbor mouth. The pilot replied that he was quite sure, whereupon the captain enquired: “Where are the lower lights?” “Gone out, sir,” replied the pilot. “Can you make the harbor, then?” asked the captain, to which the pilot answered: “We must, sir, or perish.”
Now I should probably explain to you what Mr. Moody’s audience would have understood that we may not fully comprehend in modern times: We think of lighthouses as the beacons that kept ships safe from the rocks and the shoreline. This is true, but in a harbor, especially in a time before electric lights and GPS, there were usually smaller lights positioned along the harbor entrance and channel to help guide ships in safely.
Apparently, the night of the storm the harbormaster had neglected or forgotten to light the lower lights along the shore. Maybe the storm made it seem like too much of a hassle. Maybe he simply forgot. For whatever reason, his neglect led to great tragedy.
Back to Mr. Moody’s telling of the story:
Bravely the old pilot steered the vessel upon her course toward safety. But alas! In the darkness of the harbor mouth he missed the channel, the ship struck upon many rocks, and in the stormy waters many lives were lost.
Then Moody made his appeal to his audience: “Brothers, the Master will take care of the great lighthouse! 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 story must have struck a chord with him, because he went home and wrote a familiar song:
Brightly beams our Father’s mercy From His lighthouse evermore,
But to us He gives the keeping Of the lights along the shore.
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 seaman 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.
I think we can draw some sobering conclusions from this story for ourselves even 150 years after they were originally offered. Sometimes we seem to act like the only light that the world around us needs is from the lighthouse - but we forget that we are the lights along the shore. The teaching, encouragement, and examples that we offer may be the difference between a lost soul and a brother or sister in Christ.
This story, and the implications of it, led me to think about another Hymn: The World’s Bible –
We are the only Bible The careless world will read,
We are the sinner’s gospel, We are the scoffers’ creed;
We are the Lord’s last message Given in deed and word,
What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred?”
As members of the Lord’s body (1 Cor 12:12) and ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20), are we acting as the beacons along the shore that the Lord intended for us to be? If not…” Trim your feeble lamp, my brother; Some poor seaman tempest tossed, trying now to make the harbor, In the darkness may be lost.”
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Matthew 5:14-16 - “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
