Tossed upon life's raging billow

Top Text Author Text Info Notes Tune Timeline Arrangements Page Scans Instances

Tossed upon life's raging billow

Author: George W. Bethune
Published in 99 hymnals

Piano/Organ
	God Reigns Above - Six Familiar Hymn Set…

Representative Text

1 Tossed upon life's raging billow.
Sweet it is, O Lord, to know
Thou didst press a sailor's pillow.
Thou canst feel a sailor's woe;
Never slumb'ring, never sleeping.
Tho' the night be dark and drear,
Thou the faithful watch art keeping;
"All is well," thy constant cheer.

2 Thou my heart the hope will cherish,
While to thee I lift mine eye,
Thou wilt save me o'er I perish,
Thou wilt hear the sailor's cry;
And the mast and sail be riven,
Soon life's voyage will be o'er;
Safely moored in heav'n's wide haven,
Storm and temptest vex no more.

Source: Christ in Song: for all religious services nearly one thousand best gospel hymns, new and old with responsive scripture readings (Rev. and Enl.) #733

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: George W. Bethune

Bethune, George Washington, D.D. A very eminent divine of the Reformed Dutch body, born in New York, 1805, graduated at Dickinson Coll., Carlisle, [PA], 1822, and studied theology at Princeton. In 1827 he was appointed Pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church, Rinebeck, New York. In 1830 passed to Utica, in 1834 to Philadelphia, and in 1850 to the Brooklyn Heights, New York. In 1861 he visited Florence, Italy, for his health, and died in that city, almost suddenly after preaching, April 27, 1862. His Life and Letters were edited by A. R. Van Nest, 1867. He was offered the Chancellorship of New York University, and the Provostship of the University of Pennsylvania, both of which he declined. His works include The Fruits of the Spirit, 1839; Sermo… Go to person page >

^ top

First Line:	Tossed upon life's raging billow
Author:	George W. Bethune
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

^ top

Notes

Tossed upon life's raging billow. Sailor's Hymn. Appeared in the Christian Lyre, 1830; in the Seamen's Devotional Assistant the same year, and in Dr. Bethune's Lays, 1847, p. 168, in 3 stanzas of 8 1ines. It "is said to have been the Author's first and favourite hymn, having been written when he was on a voyage to the West Indies, for the benefit of his health, in the year 1825" (Lyra Sacra Americana p. 297). It is a "Sailor's Hymn;" as such it was given in Lyra Sacra Americana, and thence passed into The Hymnary, 1872, and other English collections.

-John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

^ top

Tune

PILGRIM (Kingsley)

MIDDLETON (Arnold)

BETHANY (Smart)

BETHANY, named after the village near Jerusalem, is a suitably dramatic tune for the song text. It was composed by Henry Smart (b. Marylebone, London, England, 1813; d. Hampstead, London, 1879), a capable composer of church music who wrote some very fine hymn tunes (REGENT SQUARE, 354, is the best-k…

Go to tune page >

All tunes published with 'Tossed upon life's raging billow'^ top