{"slug": "let-the-lower-lights-be-burning", "title": "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning", "first_line": "Brightly beams our Father's mercy", "author": "philip-paul-bliss", "author_date": "1871", "foot": "trochaic", "meter": {"pattern": [8, 7, 8, 7], "doubled": false, "refrain": true, "alleluia": false, "irregular": false}, "topics": ["Service", "Light", "Duty", "Christian Life"], "scripture": ["Matthew 5:16"], "provenance": {"layer": "text", "source": "gospel-hymns-sacred-songs-1875", "source_kind": "hand_encoded", "pd_basis": "pub_pre_1931", "pd_evidence": "Philip Paul Bliss (1838-1876), words and music, first published in The Charm: A Collection of Sunday School Music, ed. P. P. Bliss (Chicago: Root & Cady, 1871). Transcribed syllable by syllable from the dated page image of Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs, ed. P. P. Bliss & Ira D. Sankey (New York: Biglow & Main, 1875) \u2014 the volume whose preface leaf engraves \"[COPYRIGHT 1875, BY BIGLOW & MAIN\" \u2014 no. 65, printed page 65, archive.org item gospelhymnssacre00blis_0, leaf n68. That page is headed \"Let the Lower Lights be Burning.\", carries the scripture motto \"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.\"\u2014Matt. 5:16, credits \"P. P. Bliss.\" on the left and \"P. P. Bliss, by per.\" on the right, sets stanza 1 and the chorus under the staves, and prints stanzas 2 and 3 in full below them. Collated word for word against a second dated printing in a DIFFERENT typesetting: Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs, Consolidated Nos. 1 to 4 (Biglow & Main / John Church, 1883), no. 65, printed page 65, archive.org item gospelhymnsconso00blis_202606, leaf n64. US public domain: first published 1871 and both witnesses read here are themselves pre-1931; Bliss died in 1876, so it is also PD in life+70 jurisdictions. DEPARTURES FROM THE PAGE, all of them typographic and all declared: (1) BOTH pages set a French space before their high punctuation, \"billows roar ;\" and \"my brother :\"; that space is closed up here. (2) Both pages end stanzas 2 and 3 with the chorus cue \"\u2014Cho.\"; the cue is not carried into the stanza text, because the refrain is a separate field. (3) Both pages italicise \"may be lost\" in the last line of stanza 3; the corpus carries no italics, so it is set in roman. (4) The two printings differ in exactly TWO marks, and this text follows the 1875 primary at both: the 1875 underlay reads \"Some poor faint - ing, struggling sea-man You may res-cue\" with no stop after \"sea-man\" where the 1883 reads \"sea-man;\", and the 1875 ends stanza 3 \"may be lost.\u2014Cho.\" with a full stop where the 1883 prints \"may be lost\u2014Cho.\" without one. NOTHING ELSE DIFFERS: apart from those two marks the two printings agree letter for letter and stop for stop through all three stanzas and the chorus, including \"tempest-tost\" (not \"tempest-tossed\") and the exclamation marks after \"burning!\" and \"wave!\".", "pd_jurisdictions": {"US": true}}, "stanzas": {"1": {"syllabified": "Bright -- ly beams our Fa -- ther's mer -- cy From His light -- house ev -- er -- more, But to us He gives the keep -- ing Of the lights a -- long the shore.", "prose": ["Brightly beams our Father's mercy", "From His lighthouse evermore,", "But to us He gives the keeping", "Of the lights along the shore."]}, "2": {"syllabified": "Dark the night of sin has set -- tled, Loud the an -- gry bil -- lows roar; Ea -- ger eyes are watch -- ing, long -- ing, For the lights a -- long the shore.", "prose": ["Dark the night of sin has settled,", "Loud the angry billows roar;", "Eager eyes are watching, longing,", "For the lights along the shore."]}, "3": {"syllabified": "Trim your fee -- ble lamp, my broth -- er: Some poor sail -- or tem -- pest -- tost, Try -- ing now to make the har -- bor, In the dark -- ness may be lost.", "prose": ["Trim your feeble lamp, my brother:", "Some poor sailor tempest-tost,", "Trying now to make the harbor,", "In the darkness may be lost."]}}, "refrain": {"syllabified": "Let the low -- er lights be burn -- ing! Send a gleam a -- cross the wave! Some poor faint -- ing, strug -- gling sea -- man You may res -- cue, you may save.", "prose": ["Let the lower lights be burning!", "Send a gleam across the wave!", "Some poor fainting, struggling seaman", "You may rescue, you may save."]}, "license": "The hymn texts and tunes are in the public domain; per-layer provenance is recorded on each record."}