And so lonely and wild--
O prodigal child,
Come home!

Come home! Come home!
For we watch and we wait,
And we stand at the gate
While the shadows are piled;
O prodigal child,
Come home!

The author is Mrs. Ellen M.H. Gates, known to the English speaking world
by her famous poem, "Your Mission."

_THE TUNE_

To "The Prodigal Child" was composed by Dr. Doane in 1869 and no hymn
ever had a fitter singing ally. All a mother's yearning is in the
refrain and cadence.

Come home! Oh, come home!

"LET THE LOWER LIGHTS BE BURNING!"

An illustration, recited in Mr. Moody's graphic fashion in one of his
discourses, suggested this hymn to P.P. Bliss.

"A stormy night on Lake Erie, and the sky pitch dark."

'Pilot, are you sure this is Cleveland? There's only one light.'

'Quite sure, Cap'n.'

'Where are the lower lights?'

'Gone out, sir.'

'Can you run in?'

'_We've got to_, Cap'n--or die.'

"The brave old pilot did his best, but, alas, he missed the channel. The
boat was wrecked, with a loss of many lives. The lower lights had gone
out.

"Brethren, the Master will take care of the great Lighthouse. It is our
work to keep the lower lights burning!"

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, b