Introduction

Words: Hen­ry L. Gil­mour, in Songs of Joy and Glad­ness, by John R. Swe­ney, Will­iam J. Kirk­pat­rick et al. (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Mc­Don­ald & Gill, 1885), num­ber 221.

Music: Kis­sim­mee Hen­ry L. Gil­mour, 1885 (🔊 pdf nwc).

During one of the se­vere snow­storms that vis­it­ed Co­lo­ra­do, a young man per­ished in sight of home. In his be­wil­der­ment he passed and re-passed his own cot­tage, to lie down and die al­most in range with the light in the win­dow which his young wife had placed there to guide him home.

All alone she watched the long night through, list­en­ing in vain for the foot­steps that would come no more; for long be­fore the morn­ing dawned the icy touch of death had stilled that warm, lov­ing heart. The sad death was made still sad­der by the fact that he was lost in sight of home.

How ma­ny wan­der­ers from the Fa­ther’s house are lost in sight of home, in the full glare of the Go­spel light! They have the open Bi­ble, ov­er­flow­ing with its calls and pro­mis­es, the faith­ful warn­ings from the sac­red desk, the ma­ni­fes­ta­tions of God’s pro­vi­dence, all tend­ing to di­rect their foot­steps hea­ven­ward; and yet from all these they turn away, wait­ing for the more con­ven­ient sea­son, and are lost, at last, in sight of the ma­ny man­sions.

Henry Gil­mour