arest the ab ing på lured after perilons €X50Po ape no byma is ne sung on the vet Chales "..ey's, o ginul și " It was written in 1740, shortly ather Wesley's return from Argica to England, and during the first story y stents of his iti auteng Whether the res fra stanza were suggested by the storms the Allende, which the writ had but recently encotta" red, Sorns f hur.^n passion we cannot say. in t such joy in finding I could hope as the world can neither give nor take away. I had that conviction of the power of God present with me, overruling fear, and raising me above what I am by nature, as surpassed all rational evidence." On the storm subsiding, he wrote: "Towards morning the sea heard and obeyed the divine voice, 'Peace, be still.' My first business to-day-may it be the first business of all my days-was to offer up the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving." "All praise to the Lord, Who rules with a word Th' untractable sea." Bishop Heber's matchless hymn beginning, The wild tempest is streaming," was written after similar experiences. The bishop took an affectionate interest in the humblest sailors during his voyages. "Only to think," said a grateful seaman, "of such a great man as the bishop coming between decks to pray with such poor fellows as we." "O Jesus! once tossed On the breast of the billow, Of despair from thy pillow, High now in thy glory, The mariner cherish, Who cries in his anguish, 'Lord, save, or we perish.'" Many of our readers have doubtless seen in old hymnbooks a spirited hymn beginning with this singular stanza: |