He must
have listened to lots of tales of the sea as he encountered men recovering from
difficult journeys. Why else would Edward Hopper have penned words for “Jesus,
Savior, Pilot Me” in the latter half of the 19th Century? Hopper was
putting words to the yarns men related about their lives on boats, lives that
must have been less than the romantic adventures others might have assumed
sailors told. Swashbuckling would hardly be the adjective to describe what
these fellows must have related to Edward as their minister, someone in whom
they confided about rough times, both physically and spiritually (perhaps
something like Christ and the Apostles experienced, shown in Rembrandt’s
masterpiece here). So, this minister-composer put himself in their shoes as he
wrote.
Edward
Hopper was a lifelong New Yorker whose encounters at one church there inspired
the poetry of this sailors’ favorite“Jesus…Pilot..” that was published in 1871.
Hopper was a 55-year old at that point, and may have composed the words soon
after beginning to minister at the Church of the Sea and Land, in New York
Harbor, the previous year. This stone church building on New York’s Lower East
Side was the scene where Hopper met many men of the sea during the senior years
of his ministerial life. That he composed the hymn early in his association
with this church and its members suggests he was quickly absorbed into their
lives, and wanted to identify with and help them. Do you suppose Edward related
the stories of Jesus’ episodes in a boat with the Apostles (Matthew 8 and 14;
Mark 4; Luke 8), or of Paul being shipwrecked (Acts 27) to the sailors of the 1870s
that he met? Did he visit them in their
livelihoods, stepping onto their ships or going to sea briefly with them? Perhaps he had firsthand experience with the
rough sea of which he writes in five of the six verses of “Jesus, Savior, Pilot
Me”. Or, more often probably, he heard vivid stories from men who were glad to
be on solid ground again. These were people who needed rest and reflection, and
also strength to return to their maritime trade. On another plane, did they
meet and associate with those who would cultivate their spirits while at work? What
do you think? Maybe some of them ‘cursed like sailors’, at least on occasion, or
hung out with some who did.
Perhaps the
seafaring crowd gets an unfair knock…don’t we all meet, work, and some of us
live with saucy people? Even the most
hardened folks may have periods when they soften, when they need someone to steer
their paths toward the inspired, true, and saving work of the Almighty. He knew
what it was like to be rocked about on a boat, and also rocked in other ways,
too. Boats and ships rust, and can sink when fired upon. People have characteristics
that are similar, and even churches may behave like that. Hopper’s Church of
the Sea and Land disbanded in 1972, 100 years after he first ministered there, but
it’s still used by Chinese Presbyterians today. But, notably, what Hopper wrote
still exists – as does its inspiration. That fact just might speak to a sailor.
The
following website has a soundtrack and all six original verses for the song: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/j/s/p/jspilotm.htm
See more
information on the song discussed above in these sources: The Complete
Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by
William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing
Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck,
Kregel Publications, 1990; and 101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck,
Kregel Publications, 1985.
See here
for information on composer’s church where hymn was developed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_and_Land_Church
No comments:
Post a Comment