1 O ye who are drifting on the swift tides of sin,
Near, near is the lifeboat! Will ye not enter in?
Wild storms are around you raging, why then delay?
Why do you not grasp the line rescue today?
Chorus:
Lay hold on the lifeline!
Lay hold on the lifeline!
Christ can save the perishing from sinking 'neath the wave;
Lay hold on the lifeline!
Lay hold on the lifeline!
Jesus Christ can rescue you, for He has pow'r to save.
2 See! there is a signal gleaming bright from the shore;
Hark! voices are calling 'mid the loud tempest's roar;
Look! there is the lifeline floating close by your side,
This, this is your only hope, there's no help beside. [Chorus]
3 Soul, you are in reach of safety, helpers are near;
This faith should your courage strengthen--lo! God is here;
While now there is hope of rescue, reach forth the hand,
Lay hold on the lifeline at the dear Lord's command. [Chorus]
Elisha Hoffman (1839-1929) after graduating from Union Seminary in Pennsylvania was ordained in 1868. As a minister he was appointed to the circuit in Napoleon, Ohio in 1872. He worked with the Evangelical Association's publishing arm in Cleveland for eleven years. He served in many chapels and churches in Cleveland and in Grafton in the 1880s, among them Bethel Home for Sailors and Seamen, Chestnut Ridge Union Chapel, Grace Congregational Church and Rockport Congregational Church. In his lifetime he wrote more than 2,000 gospel songs including"Leaning on the everlasting arms" (1894). The fifty song books he edited include Pentecostal Hymns No. 1 and The Evergreen, 1873.
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