Bible Songs — Invitation

The Waters are Troubled

No. 1284
Tune THE WATERS ARE TROUBLED.
Words J. E. Rankin, D. D.
Music Rev. S. Morrison.
Key A-flat major
Singing key A♭ major
Time 6/8
3 stanzas

Words

The waters are troubled,The angel is here;The fountain of mercyFlows healing and clear;O come in your sorrow,And come in your sin;The waters are troubled:Step in, O step in!

The waters are troubled,No longer delay;The fountain of mercyHas healing to-day;Then why will you linger,Since life you may win?The waters are troubled:Step in, O step in!

The waters are troubled,The angel still waits;He pauses in perilWho halts and debates:Give over your falt'ring,Your struggles within;The waters are troubled:Step in, O step in!

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1284» (large, left), title «THE WATERS ARE TROUBLED.» centred (condensed capitals with larger initials); under it the epigraph in two lines, «"An angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water : whosoever then first after the / troubling of the water stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had."—John 5 : 4.» (the opening quotation marks blurred; a colon after «water» and a comma after «stepped in»; old-style figures; the thin spaces before the colons closed up here); on the next line «J. E. RANKIN, D. D.» at the left (words) and «REV. S. MORRISON.» at the right (music), capitals and small capitals. No meter, no reference line. The hymn fills the lower half of printed p. 498 (two systems, with «By permission.» centred under them above the folio) and ends with one system at the head of printed p. 499 under the running title «THE WATERS ARE TROUBLED.—Concluded.» All three stanzas are interlinear, three lines between the staves of the three systems, numbered «1.», «2.», «3.» in system 1; there is no text under the music. Each stanza is given here in its eight verse lines (the staff breaks and the page turn fall inside lines 3 and 6: «The fountain of / mercy», «And / come in your sin;» and their fellows are joined). Syllable hyphens are joined («wa - ters», «an - gel», «long - er», «de - lay», «paus - es», «mer - cy», «per - il», «heal - ing», «de - bates», «o - ver», «sor - row», «lin - ger», «strug - gles», «with - in»); «to - day» is given as «to-day» (the book's spelling; the syllable hyphen of the interlinear text cannot show it); «troubled», «fountain» and «falt'ring» are printed unbroken under two notes. Stanza 3 has a colon after «debates» where stanzas 1–2 have semicolons — as printed.