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[Say, is your lamp burning, my brother?]

Appears in 8 hymnals Composer and/or Arranger: C. C. Williams Tune Key: G Major Incipit: 53211 76515 54322 Used With Text: Is Your Lamp Burning?

Author: Ellen Marie Huntington Gates Appears in 65 hymnals First Line: Say, is your lamp burning, my brother? Refrain First Line: Say, is your lamp burning, my brother? Lyrics: 1. Say, is your lamp burning, my brother? I pray you look quickly and see; For if it were burning, then surely Some beam would fall brightly on me. There are many and many around you Who follow wherever you go; If you thought that they walked in the shadow, Your lamp would burn brighter, I know. Refrain Say, is your lamp burning, my brother? I pray you look quickly and see; For if it were burning, then surely Some beam would fall brightly on me! 2. Upon the dark mountains they stumble, They are bruised on the rocks, and they lie With tear-filled eyes turned pleading upward, To the clouds and the pitiful sky. There is many a lamp that is lighted— We behold them a-near and afar; But not many among them, my brother, Shine steadily on like a star. [Refrain] 3. If once all the lamps that are lighted Should steadily blaze in a line, Wide over the land and the ocean, What a girdle of glory would shine! How all the dark places would brighten! How the mists would roll up and away! How the earth would laugh out in her gladness, To hail the millennial day! [Refrain] Used With Tune: [Say, is your lamp burning, my brother?] Text Sources: Gospel Hymns No. 4, by Ira D. Sankey et al. (New York: Biglow & Main, 1881), alt.

Instances

Published text-tune combinations (hymns) from specific hymnals

Is Your Lamp Burning?

Author: Ellen Marie Huntington Gates Hymnal: The Cyber Hymnal #3075 First Line: Say, is your lamp burning, my brother? Refrain First Line: Say, is your lamp burning, my brother? Lyrics: 1. Say, is your lamp burning, my brother? I pray you look quickly and see; For if it were burning, then surely Some beam would fall brightly on me. There are many and many around you Who follow wherever you go; If you thought that they walked in the shadow, Your lamp would burn brighter, I know. Refrain Say, is your lamp burning, my brother? I pray you look quickly and see; For if it were burning, then surely Some beam would fall brightly on me! 2. Upon the dark mountains they stumble, They are bruised on the rocks, and they lie With tear-filled eyes turned pleading upward, To the clouds and the pitiful sky. There is many a lamp that is lighted— We behold them a-near and afar; But not many among them, my brother, Shine steadily on like a star. [Refrain] 3. If once all the lamps that are lighted Should steadily blaze in a line, Wide over the land and the ocean, What a girdle of glory would shine! How all the dark places would brighten! How the mists would roll up and away! How the earth would laugh out in her gladness, To hail the millennial day! [Refrain] Languages: English Tune Title: [Say, is your lamp burning, my brother?]

Is Your Lamp Burning

Author: Mrs. E. M. H. Gates Hymnal: Temple Themes and Sacred Songs #s33 (1888) First Line: Say, is your lamp burning, my brother? Refrain First Line: Say, is your lamp burning, my brother? Languages: English Tune Title: [Say, is your lamp burning, my brother?]

Is Your Lamp Burning

Author: Mrs. E. M. H. Gates Hymnal: Redemption Songs #33 (1889) First Line: Say, is your lamp burning, my brother Refrain First Line: Say, is your lamp burning, my brother Scripture: Matthew 5:16 Tune Title: [Say, is your lamp burning, my brother]

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People

Authors, composers, editors, etc.

Ellen M. H. Gates

1835 - 1920 Person Name: Ellen Marie Huntington Gates Author of "Is Your Lamp Burning?" in The Cyber Hymnal Gates, Ellen, née Huntingdon, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, is the author of several popular pieces in the American Mission and Sunday School hymn-books. Of these the following have passed from the American books into Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos:— 1. Come home, come home, you are weary at heart. Invitation. 2. I am now a child of God. Saved through Jesus. 3. I will sing you a song of that beautiful land. Concerning Heaven. 4. O the clanging bells of time. Yearning for Heaven. 5. Say, is your lamp burning, my brother. Watching and Waiting. Concerning her poem which is used as a hymn in America, "If you cannot on the ocean" (Duty), Duffield says her account of its origin is as follows:—"The lines were written upon my slate one snowy afternoon in the winter of 1860. I knew, as I know now, that the poem was only a simple little thing, but somehow 1 had a presentiment that it had wings, and would fly into sorrowful hearts, uplifting and strengthening them." (English Hymns, 1886, p. 257.) --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ====================== Gates, Ellen, p. 1565, i., now (1906) of New York city, was born at Torrington, Conn., and married to Isaac E. Gates. Her poems, &c, were published as Treasures of Kurium, 1895. Concerning Dr. March's hymn, "Hark! the voice of Jesus crying" (q.v.), and Mrs. Gates's "If you cannot on the ocean," some confusion has arisen, mainly, we think, from the fact that the opening line of Mrs. Gates's hymn, written in 1860, and the first line of Dr. March's second stanza are nearly the same, i.e., "If you cannot on the ocean," and "If you cannot cross the ocean." The incident which associates the late President Lincoln's name with this hymn is thus set forth by Mr. Philip Phillips in his Singing Pilgrim, 1866, p. 97:— "The words of this truly beautiful song ['If you cannot on the ocean'] were written by Mrs. Ellen H. Gates . . . When our lamented President Lincoln heard Mr. Phillips sing it at the Hall of Representatives in Washington, Feb. 29, 1865, he was overcome with emotion, and sent up the following written request [given in facsimile on p. 97] to Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Chairman, for its repetition:—' Near the end let us have "Your Mission" [the title of the hymn] repeated by Mr. Phillips. Don't say I called for it. A. Lincoln.' " It was through this incident that the hymn became known through America as " President Lincoln's favourite hymn." [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)