Peace, Be Still

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Once upon the heaving [stormy] ocean

Author: Mary Dana Shindler; Author: W. W. Bailey
Tune: [Once upon the heaving ocean]
Published in 13 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Once upon the heaving ocean,
Rode a bark at evening tide,
While the waves in wild commotion
Dash'd against the vessel's side;
Jesus sleeping on a pillow,
Heeded not the raging billow;
While the winds were all abroad,
Calmly slept the Son of God.

2 In that dark and stormy hour,
Fearful ones awoke the Lord;
Jesus, by his sovereign power,
Calm'd the tempest with a word:
On life's dark and restless ocean,
Mid the billows' wild commotion,
Trembling soul, your Lord is there,
He will make you still his care.

3 Jesus knows your silent weeping,
When before his throne you bow;
Never, never is he sleeping,
Where he reigns in glory now:
If the world is dark before thee,
If the billows rolling o'er thee
All thy soul with terror fill,--
Hear him saying, "Peace, be still!"

Source: The Minstrel of Zion: a book of religious songs, accompanied with appropriate music, chiefly original #135

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Author: Mary Dana Shindler

Shindler, Mary Stanley Bunce, née Palmer, better known as Mrs. Dana, was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, Feb. 15, 1810. In 1835 she was married to Charles E. Dana, of New York, and removed with him to Bloomington, now Muscatine, Iowa, in 1838. Mr. Dana died in 1839, and Mrs. Dana returned to South Carolina. Subsequently she was married to the Rev. Robert D. Shindler, who was Professor in Shelby College, Kentucky, in 1851, and afterwards in Texas. Mrs. Shindler, originally a Presbyterian, was for some time an Unitarian; but of late years she has been a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. As Mary S. B. Dana she published the Southern Harp, 1840, and the Northern Harp, 1841. From these works her hymns have been taken, 8 of which are… Go to person page >

Author: W. W. Bailey

(no biographical information available about W. W. Bailey.) Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Once upon the heaving [stormy] ocean
Title:	Peace, Be Still
Author:	Mary Dana Shindler
Author:	W. W. Bailey
Language:	English
Refrain First Line:	"Peace be still!"
Publication Date:	1892
Copyright:	Public Domain