Hear us, O Lord, from heaven thy dwelling-place

Hear us, O Lord, from heaven thy dwelling-place. William Henry Gill* (1839-1923). This is known as ‘The Manx Fishermen’s Evening Hymn’. It was written by Gill to fit a ballad tune from the Isle of Man, and published in his Manx National Songs (1896). The fishermen from the Isle of Man used to ask for God’s blessing before casting their nets, and Gill prefaced the hymn with a quotation from the Manx Book of Common Prayer: ‘…that it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, and to restore and continue to us the blessings of the sea, so as in due time we may enjoy them.’ Here the Manx fishermen follow the example of the biblical fishermen who toiled all...