SAILORS' HYMNS.
The oldest sailors' hymn is found in the 107th Psalm, vss. 23–30:
They that go down to the sea in ships,
To do business in great waters,
These see the works of the Lord,
And His wonders in the deep, etc.
Montgomery has made this metrical rendering of these verses:
They that toil upon the deep,
And in vessels light and frail
O'er the mighty waters sweep
With the billows and the gale,
Mark what wonders God performs
When He speaks, and, unconfined,
Rush to battle all His storms
In the chariots of the wind.
The hymn is not in the collections, and has no tune. Addison paraphrased the succeeding verses of the Psalm in his hymn, “How are thy servants blessed O Lord,” sung to Hugh Wilson's* tune of “Avon”:
When by the dreadful tempest borne
High on the broken wave,
They know Thou art not slow to hear,
Nor impotent to save.
The storm is laid, the winds retire,
Obedient to Thy will;
The sea that roars at Thy command,
At Thy command is still.
* Hugh Wilson was a Scotch weaver of Kilmarnock, born 1764; died 1824.
“FIERCE WAS THE WILD BILLOW.”
(Ζοφερᾱς τρικυμίας)
The ancient writer, Anatolius, who composed this hymn has for centuries been confounded with “St” Anatolius, patriarch of Constantinople, who died A.D. 458. The author of the hymn lived in the seventh century, and except that he wrote several hymns, and also poems in praise of the martyrs, nothing or next to nothing, is known of him. The “Wild Billow” song was the principle seaman's hymn of the early church. It is being introduced into modern psalmody, the translation in use ranking among the most successful of Dr. John Mason Neale's renderings from the Greek.
Fierce was the wild billow,
Dark was the night;
Oars labored heavily,
Foam glimmered white;
Trembled the mariners;
Peril was nigh;
Then said the God of God,
“Peace! It is I!”
Ridge of the mountain wave,
Lower thy crest!
Wall of Euroclydon,
Be thou at rest!
Sorrow can never be,
Darkness must fly,
When saith the Light of Light,
“Peace! It is I!”