Throw Out The Lifeline

Lyrics: Edwin Smith Ufford
Music: Edwin Smith Ufford

Played by Jerry in the JGB with Melvin Seals. Based on a hymn by Edwin Smith Ufford, apparently written after observing a lifesaving drill at Point Alllerton near Boston, Massachusetts in 1888. Thanks to Walter Keenan and Gene Baran for help with the lyrics - which vary quite a bit from one JGB version to another.

Chorus
Throw out the life line
Throw out the life line
Somebody's drifting away
Throw out the life line
Throw out the life line
Someone is sinking today

Throw out the life line
Across the dark waters
There is a brother
That someone could save
Somebody's brother
Who will then dare
Throw out the lifeline
His perils to share

[chorus]

Throw out the life line
With hands quick and strong
Why do you tarry
Why must you wait so long
You you can see [him] sinking
Hasten today
Throw out the life line
He's drifting away

[chorus]

Throw out the life line
To danger fraught men
Someone's in trouble
Do the best you can
Help them to ascend
From the dark water
Tossed in the waves
Where darkness it flows

[chorus]
[chorus]
[chorus]

Throw out the life line across the dark wave
There is a brother whom someone should save
Somebody's brothe, oh who then will dare
To throw out the life line, his peril to share

Refrain
Throw out the life line, throw out the life line
Someone is drifting away
Throw out the life line, throw out the life line
Someone is sinking today

Throw out the life line with hand quick and strong
Why do you tarry, why linger so long
See, he is sinking; oh, hasten today
And out with the life boat! away, then away

[Refrain]

Throw out the life line to danger fraught men
Sinking in anguish where you've never been
Winds of temptation and billows of woe
Will soon hurl them out where the dark waters flow

[Refrain]

Soon will the season of rescue be o'er
Soon will they drift to eternity's shore
Haste, then, my brother, no time for delay
But throw out the life line and save them today

[Refrain]

This is the life line, oh tempest tossed men
Baffled by waves of temptation and sin
Wild winds of passion, your strength cannot brave
But Jesus is mighty, and Jesus can save

[Refrain]

Jesus is able, to you who are driven
Farther and farther from God and from Heaven
Helpless and hopeless, o'erwhelmed by the wave
We throw out the life line, 'tis Jesus can save

[Refrain]

This is the life line, oh grasp it today
See, you are recklessly drifting away
Voices in warning, shout over the wave
Oh grasp the strong life line, for Jesus can save