Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy

One of my favorite hymns is Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. I found this video on YouTube in case you don't know what it sounds like and want to hear it. Join in the awesomeness with me.  :)

The text to this hymn really touches me and, when combined with the music, stirs me to action. I normally have an easy time putting my feelings into words, but what I feel from really touching music is beyond my ability to express. Below are the words (from the LDS hymbook). I also looked up the history because the message in the hymn feels so real that I thought it must come from someone's experience. I found these sites describing the details as well as information about the man who wrote it. It's touching...and tragic. See A Hymn and Its History and Mormon-Stories.com.

1. 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.

2. Dark the night of sin has settled;
Loud the angry billows roar.
Eager eyes are watching, longing,
For the lights along the shore.

3. Trim your feeble lamp, my brother;
Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor,
In the darkness may be lost.

Text and music: Philip Paul Bliss, 1838–1876

I have a feeling that I'll blog about a lot of songs. So far I've tried to post messages on other topics just so this doesn't become a musical blog. I've never really thought of myself as the musical type, but more and more I realize that I am. Music makes my soul want to dance.