Now weigh the anchor, hoist the sail

Now weigh the anchor, hoist the sail

Author: James Montgomery
Published in 1 hymnal

Representative Text

Now weigh the anchor, hoist the sail,
Launch out upon the pathless peep,
Resolved, however veers the gale,
The destin'd port in mind to keep;
Through all the dangers of the way,
Deliver us, good Lord, we pray.

When tempests mingle sea and sky,
And winds like lions rage and rend,
Ships o'er the mountain-waters fly,
Or down unfathom'd depths descend,
Though skill avail not, strength decay,
Deliver us, good Lord, we pray.

If lightnings from embattled clouds
Strike, or a spark in secret nurst,
From stem to stern, o'er masts and shrouds,
Like doomsday's conflagration burst,
Amid the fire Thy power display,
Deliver us, good Lord, we pray.

Through yielding planks, should ocean urge
Rude entrance, flooding all below,
Speak, ere we founder in the surge--
"Thus far, nor farther shall ye go;
247
Here, ye proud waves, your fury stay:"
Deliver us, good Lord, we pray.

With cordage snapt, and canvas riven,
Through straits thick-strown with rock and shoal,
Along some gulph-stream. darkly driven,
Fast wedged 'midst icebergs at the pole,
Or on low breakers cast away,
Deliver us, good Lord, we pray.

Save, or we perish--calms or storms,
By day, by night, at home, afar,
Death walks the waves in all his forms,
And shoots his darts from every star;
Want, pain, and woe man's path waylay,
Deliver us, good Lord, we pray.

Sacred Poems and Hymns

Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Now weigh the anchor, hoist the sail
Author: James Montgomery
Meter: 8.8.8.8.8.8
Language: English

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Text

Sacred Poems and Hymns #244

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