ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, Who of Thy great mercy didst save Noah and his family in the ark from perishing by water; and also didst safely lead the children of Israel, Thy people, through the Red Sea, figuring thereby Thy holy Baptism: and by the Baptism of Thy well-beloved Son Jesus Christ in the river Jordan, didst sanctify water to the mystical washing away of sins: We beseech Thee, for Thine infinite mercies, that Thou wilt mercifully look upon Thy servants; wash them, and sanctify them with the Holy Ghost; that they being delivered from Thy wrath, may be received into the ark of Christ's Church; and being steadfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity, may so pass the waves of this troublesome world, that finally they may come to the land of everlasting life, there to reign with Thee, world without end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From the Book of Common Prayer.

Scripture Texts

ON THE CREATION AND GOVERNANCE OF THE SEA.

The sea is His, and He made it.

Psalm xcv. 5.

The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Gen. i. 2.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together under one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, called He Seas: and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were the third day. Genesis i. 6-10, 13.

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap:

He layeth up the depth in store houses. Psalm xxxiii. 6, 7.

He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.

Job xxvi. 10.

By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water. 2 St. Peter iii. 5.

The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

Psalm xxiv. 1, 2.

Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment, the waters stood above the mountains.

At Thy rebuke they fled: at the voice of Thy thunder they hasted away.

They go up by the mountains, they go down by the valleys, unto the place which Thou hast founded for them. Psalm civ. 6, 7, 8.

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counsellor, hath taught Him?

With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and shewed to Him the way of understanding?

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. Isaiah xl. 12-15.

Who shut up the sea with doors when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?