Brightly beams our Father's mercy From His lighthouse evermore; But to us He gives the keeping Of the lights along the shore. CHORUS. Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave; Some poor fainting, struggling seaman You may rescue, you may save. Both words and music--composed in 1871--are by Mr. Bliss. There are wakening chords in the tune--and especially the chorus--when the counterpoint is well vocalized; and the effect is more pronounced the greater the symphony of voices. Congregations find a zest in every note. "Hold the Fort" can be sung in the street. "Let the Lower Lights be Burning" is at home between echoing walls. The use of the song in "Bethel" meetings classes it with sailors' hymns. "SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER." Included with the _Gospel Hymns_, but of older date. Rev. William W. Walford, a blind English minister, was the author, and it was probably written about the year 1842. It was recited to Rev. Thomas Salmon, Congregational pastor at Coleshill, Eng., who took it down and brought it to New York, where it was published in the New York _Observer_. Little is known of Mr. Walford save that in his blindness, besides preaching occasionally, he employed his mechanical skill in making small useful articles of bone and ivory. The tune was composed by W.B. Bradbury in 1859, and first appeared with the hymn in _Cottage Melodies_. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer That calls me from a world of care, And bids me at my Father's throne Make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief My soul has often found relief, And oft escaped the tempter's snare By thy return, sweet hour of prayer. "O BLISS OF THE PURIFIED! BLISS OF THE FREE!" Rev. Francis Bottome, D.D., born in Belper, Derbyshire, Eng., May 26, 1823, removed to the United States in 1850, and entered the Methodist ministry. A man of sterling character and exemplary piety. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. Was assistant compiler of several singing books, and wrote original hymns. The above, entitled "O sing of His mighty love" was composed by him in 1869. The last stanza reads,-- O Jesus the Crucified! Thee will I sing, My blessed Redeemer, my God and my King! My soul, filled with rapture shall shout o'er the grave And triumph in death in the Mighty to save. CHORUS. O sing of His mighty love (_ter_) Mighty to save! Dr. Bottome returned to England, and died at Tavistock June 29, 1894. _THE TUNE._ Bradbury's "Songs of the Beautiful" (in _Fresh Laurels_). The hymn was set to this chorus in 1871. "WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE?"