Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/496

 484 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED

Hymn 963. How are Thy servants blest, O Lord!

JOSEPH ADDISON (75).

The Spectator, No. 489, September 20, 1712. The following verses are omitted :

Thy mercy sweeten d every soil,

Made every region please ; The hoary Alpine hills it warm d,

And smooth d the Tyrrhene seas :

Think, O my soul, devoutly think,

How with affrighted eyes Thou saw st the wide-extended deep

In all its horrors rise !

Confusion dwelt in every face,

And fear in ev ry heart ; When waves on waves, and gulphs in gulphs,

O ercame the pilot s art.

Yet then from all my griefs, O Lord,

Thy mercy set me free, Whilst in the confidence of pray r

My soul took hold on Thee.

Ver. 3 of the Hymn-book version begins, For tho in dreadful whirles we hung.

Addison had been a great traveller between 1699 and 1702, and had been often tossed in storms. None of the objects which he had ever seen affected his imagination like the sea or ocean. I cannot see the hearings of this prodigious bulk of waters even in a calm, without a very pleasing astonishment ; but when it is worked up in a tempest, so that the horizon on every side is nothing but foaming billows and floating mountains, it is impossible to describe the agreeable horror that arises from such a prospect. A troubled ocean, to a man who sails upon it, is, I think, the biggest object that he can see in motion, and consequently gives his imagination one of the highest kinds of pleasure that can arise from greatness. I must confess, it is impossible for me to survey this world of fluid matter without thinking on the hand that first poured it out, and made a proper channel for its reception. He says, Great painters do not only give us landskips of gardens, groves, and meadows, but

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