Aligning with the upper Light

There is the story of a shipwreck on a dark and tempestuous night, when not even a star was visible. A ship was approaching the harbor of Cleveland, with a pilot on board. 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 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.”

Bravely the old man 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.

When Mr. Philip P. Bliss, the well-known hymn writer, heard this striking story it at once suggested to him one of his most popular hymns “Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy”

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 seaman

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 seaman

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.

Our Father in Heaven and our Savior, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are the upper lighthouse. They are always burning through our faith, our scriptures, our prayers, our churches. But, the lower lights ...

It came to me, at one point, that I wasn’t living as I felt that I should be. That is, the ways that I was living weren’t leading me to the life that I wanted to have. I had some knowledge of God. I had been exposed. I’d visited several churches and read some scripture. But, when I desired to change my life, I looked around at the examples of people that I respected. Some were exemplary in one thing, some in another. The ways that they were exemplary were all in harmony with the Upper light.

It was an alignment of the examples that they set and my understanding of God that gave me direction to change my life. That is still the way that I seek direction. Someone frequently sets the example of ‘Godly’ living. Perhaps, to someone, we might even have the privilege to be the lower light.