Abba Father, the Source of Light, Life and Love

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

 Father of light, and life, and love

Father of light, and life, and love,
Thyself to us reveal,
As saints below and saints above
Thy sacred presence feel.

Not with the eye of mortal sense,
By angels round the throne,
Or happy souls departed hence,
Art Thou in glory known.

No sun by day, no moon by night,
For this our spirits need,
Who walk by faith, and not by sight,
They feel Thee nigh indeed.

Light in Thy light the blind may see,
No more by sin estranged;
Light in the Lord, so let us be,
Into Thine image changed.

Since Thou Thyself dost still display
Unto the pure in heart;
O make us, children of the day,
To know Thee as Thou art.

 

For Thou art light, and life, and love;
And Thy redeem'd below
May see Thee, as Thy saints above,
And know Thee as they know.

Montgomery, James, son of John Montgomery, a Moravian minister, was born at Irvine, Ayrshire, Nov. 4, 1771. In 1776 he removed with his parents to the Moravian Settlement at Gracehill, near Ballymena, county of Antrim. Two years after he was sent to the Fulneck Seminary, Yorkshire. He left Fulneck in 1787, and entered a retail shop at Mirfield, near Wakefield. Soon tiring of that he entered upon a similar situation at Wath, near Rotherham, only to find it quite as unsuitable to his taste as the former. A journey to London, with the hope of finding a publisher for his youthful poems ended in failure; and in 1792 he was glad to leave Wath for Shefield to join Mr. Gales, an auctioneer, bookseller, and printer of the Sheffield Register newspaper, as his assistant. In 1794 Mr. Gales left England to avoid a political prosecution. Montgomery took the Sheffield Register in hand, changed its name to The Sheffield Iris, and continued to edit it for thirty-one years. During the next two years he was imprisoned twice, first for reprinting therein a song in commemoration of "The Fall of the Bastille," and the second for giving an account of a riot in Sheffield. The editing of his paper, the composition and publication of his poems and hynms, the delivery of lectures on poetry in Sheffield and at the Royal Institution, London, and the earnest advocacy of Foreign Missions and the Bible Society in many parts of the country, gave great variety but very little of stirring incident to his life. In 1833 he received a Royal pension of £200 a year. He died in his sleep, at the Mount, Sheffield, April 30, 1854, and was honoured with a public funeral. A statue was erected to his memory in the Sheffield General Cemetery, and a stained glass window in the Parish Church. A Wesleyan chapel and a public hall are also named in his honour. 

Source: The Hymnary
http://www.hymnary.org/text/father_of_light_and_life_and_love

 And another find 
that touches on the same truth:
http://www.rhythmontherock.com/father_of_light.html
 


Sincerely yours in Jesus through Mary,
Mike Rizzio

Imitate Mary
Become like Jesus
Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ
See you on the High Ground!

* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph;
O Beata Trinitas;
St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael