Man the life-boat! Man the life-boat!
Strong and short above the roar,
Sounds the order to the watchers
On the tempest beaten shore,
Hark! again the guns appealing!
Signals burn for swift relief;
There are men and wives and children,
Facing death, on yonder reef!

Refrain

Man the life-boat! Man the life-boat!
Help, for Christ’s sake, them that drown!
In the peril of great waters,
Let them not in sin go down!

Man the life-boat! Man the life-boat!
Fog and night and cruel sea,
All the odds of death against them,
And eter­nal jeopardy.
Thou, who bidd’st us dare the surges,
Stay us at the struggling oar!
Nay! go with us to the rescue!
Shall they sink in sight of shore?

Refrain

Man the life-boat! Man the life-boat!
Courage, fellow men! ’Tis He,
Guiding us to your deliverance,
Once that trod the Ga­li­lee!
Lo, the Church that carrieth Je­sus,
Not death’s flood-gates shall o’erwhelm;
Scourging storms but urge us shoreward,
Life and Love are at the helm!

Refrain

Man the life-boat! Man the life-boat!
Think how once on breaking deck
Thou didst stand aghast, till Je­sus
Brought thee from the lurching wreck.
To the oars then! O Re­deem­er
Let Thy heart throb thro’ our hand,
Till the souls in mortal danger,
Find thro’ Thee the solid land.

Refrain