Fishermen of all countries seemed to have lived nearer to God than other people. Constantly in danger, the spirit that broods over the deep has always been real to them. It is this feeling of the nearness of the Creator that makes them the most religious of men.
“When I was at St. Ives,” said a man to his companion, “I walked down to the shore, and there was a thick fog out at sea. On a little headland, a number of fishermen’s wives and daughters were gathered together singing Sankey’s hymns. I asked the women the meaning of this singing, and they replied that the fishermen, being unable to see the shore in the dense fog that prevailed, might be lost; but they knew their own position from that of the singers, and could guide their little boats by the singing. ‘Listen, and you’ll hear them answer us.’ The women sang the first part of the hymn:
‘Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast,
There, by His love o’ershadowed,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.’
“Then far out at sea, the fishermen replied:
‘Hark ‘tis the voice of angels
Borne in a song to me,
Over the fields of glory,
Over the jasper sea.’
“I was entranced. The whole place seemed to be holy ground. As one of the fishermen said to me:
“‘We’ve naught to do but to serve God and catch fish.’”