Bible Songs — Invitation

Come into the Ark

On time's wide waste of waters

No. 1278
Tune COME INTO THE ARK.
Words F. E. B.
Music F. E. Belden.
Key C major
Singing key B♭ major
Time 6/8
4 stanzas

Words

On time's wide waste of watersThere floats a kindly bark;O earth's lost sons and daughters,It is Salvation's Ark!The wreck of self will strand youBefore the voyage is o'er:Salvation's Ark will land youOn heaven's peaceful shore.

REFRAIN

Come into the Ark of safety,Come in and be saved to-day;The tempest may break to-morrow,Come into the Ark to-day;The tempest may break to-morrow,Come into the Ark to-day.

O trust in self no longer,For self will surely fail;Temptations will grow stronger,And evil will prevail.Come, all thy fears abating,Forsaking all thy sin;While Mercy's Ark is waiting,O haste to enter in.

Shall we be of the numberWho seek for souls to save;Or shall we sink to slumberOn sin's delusive wave?How dread would be the waking,How fearful and how dark,To find the tempest breaking,And we outside the Ark!

Then come while hope is offered,Thy coming shall be blest;Eternal life is profferedWithin the Ark of rest.The dove of peace shall hoverAbove thee on thy way,And God's own hands shall coverAnd keep thee ev'ry day.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1278» (large, left), title «COME INTO THE ARK.» centred (condensed capitals with larger initials); under it the epigraph in one line, «"And the Lord said unto Noah. Come, thou and all thy house, into the ark."—Gen. 7 : 1.» (old-style figures; the mark after «Noah» is read as a period — see `uncertainties.md`); «F. E. B.» at the left (words) and «F. E. BELDEN.» at the right (music, capitals and small capitals). No meter, no tune name other than the title, no reference line. The hymn runs over two pages: PDF 495 (printed 494) holds five systems and, under them, «Copyrighted 1886 by The J. E. White Pub. Co.»; the last system stands at the top of PDF 496 (printed 495) under the running title «COME INTO THE ARK.—Concluded.». All four stanzas are interlinear, numbered «1.»–«4.», between the staves of systems 1–3; «p REFRAIN.» stands over system 4 and the refrain words are printed once, under systems 4–5 and the system of PDF 496 (its last two lines have the same words, the first time closed by a semicolon, the second by a period); the refrain is sung after every stanza. Each printed line of words carries several verse lines, and two verse lines of each stanza (the third and the sixth) are broken by the change of system; they are given here one verse line per line, each beginning with a capital as printed. Joined at the system changes: «sons and / daughters,», «will grow / strong-er,», «sink to / slum-ber», «life is / prof-fered» (system 1 → 2) and, inside a word, «Be- / fore», «For- / sak-ing», «A- / bove» (system 2 → 3; in stanza 3 the break falls between «How» and «fear-ful»). Words divided under the notes are joined («kind-ly», «sure-ly», «com-ing», «E-ter-nal», «Tempta-tions», «Sal-va-tion's», «e-vil», «pre-vail», «de-lu-sive», «With-in», «a-bat-ing», «wak-ing», «hov-er», «strong-er», «slum-ber», «prof-fered», «Be-fore», «For-sak-ing», «fear-ful», «A-bove», «wait-ing», «tem-pest», «en-ter», «out-side», «cov-er», «peace-ful», «ev-'ry», «in-to», «safe-ty» → «kindly», «surely», «coming», «Eternal», «Temptations», «Salvation's», «evil», «prevail», «delusive», «Within», «abating», «waking», «hover», «stronger», «slumber», «proffered», «Before», «Forsaking», «fearful», «Above», «waiting», «tempest», «enter», «outside», «cover», «peaceful», «ev'ry», «into», «safety»); «to - day» and «to - mor - row» keep the hyphen of the book's spelling («to-day», «to-morrow»). The print sets a thin space before «;», «:», «!» and «?» («bark ;», «o'er :», «Ark !», «wave ?», «7 : 1»); it is closed up here; curly quotes and apostrophes are written straight. Spelling, capitals («Ark», «Salvation's», «Mercy's») and punctuation are the print's.