Читать книгу Best Loved Hymns and Readings - Martin Manser - Страница 43

This evergreen hymn, published in 1861, is indelibly associated with seafarers and is sometimes called the ‘sailors hymn’. Although an unsubstantiated tradition claims that William Whiting, a London-born grocer’s son who became Master of the Winchester choirboys, wrote this hymn for one of his choristers who was about to leave for America, it seems Whiting rather intended his lines to be interpreted as a metaphor for baptism and the ‘restless wave’ to stand for the world and all its troubles. The tune, written by John Bacchus Dykes, is called ‘Melita’, this being a reference to Malta (the place where St Paul was shipwrecked, according to Acts 27).

Eternal Father, strong to save,

Whose arm doth bind the restless wave,

Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep

Its own appointed limits keep;

O hear us when we cry to Thee

For those in peril on the sea.

O Saviour, whose almighty word

The winds and waves submissive heard,

Who walkedst on the foaming deep,

And calm amid its rage didst sleep:

O hear us when we cry to Thee

For those in peril on the sea.

O sacred Spirit, who didst brood

Upon the chaos dark and rude,

Who bad’st its angry tumult cease,

And gavest light and life and peace:

O hear us when we cry to Thee

For those in peril on the sea.

O Trinity of love and power,

Our brethren shield in danger’s hour;

From rock and tempest, fire and foe,

Protect them wheresoe’er they go:

And ever let there rise to Thee

Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

William Whiting (1825-78)