Readings · Hymns
Eternal Father, Strong to Save
William Whiting · 24 lines
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bid’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 Christ, Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walkedst on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.
Most Holy Spirit, Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, 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;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
About this reading
William Whiting, who was master of the choristers' school at Winchester College, wrote this prayer for those at sea in 1860. It was first printed the next year in Hymns Ancient and Modern, under the heading "For those at Sea," in a text the book's compilers had revised.
The text of 1861, which the book's compilers revised from William Whiting's words of 1860 and printed without his name. Whiting revised the hymn again in 1869, so later printings differ.
- First published
- 1861
- Text from
- Hymns Ancient and Modern (London, 1861)
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