June 24, 2009 I met a stranger in the night
“The poet wrote:
I met a stranger in the night, whose lamp had ceased to shine;
I paused and let him light his lamp from mine.
A tempest sprang up later on, and shook the world about,
And when the wind was gone, my lamp was out.
But back came to me the stranger-his lamp was glowing fine;
He held the precious flame and lighted mine. [Author Unknown]
“Perhaps the moral of this poem is simply that if you want to give a light
to others, you have to glow yourself.”
Thomas S. Monson, Ensign, May 1999, 54
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I believe that there is a good chance that the author of that poem is Rabbi A. Alan Steinbach, who served about 50 years at Temple Ahavath Sholom in Brooklyn, NY. I was a member of that congregation, and he frequently used a slightly different version of this poem as a benediction at the close of services in the 50′s and 60′s.
The differences are “shook my world about,” and the closing two lines were But back came to me the stranger-his lamp was burning fine; He held to me the glowing flame and lighted mine.