Lyrics
Joys are flowing like a river,
Since the Comforter has come;
He abides with us forever,
Makes the trusting heart His home.
Blessed quietness, holy quietness,
What assurance in my soul!
On the stormy sea He speaks peace to me,
How the billows cease to roll!
Bringing life and health and gladness,
All around this heav’nly Guest,
Banished unbelief and sadness,
Changed our weariness to rest.
Like the rain that falls from heaven,
Like the sunlight from the sky,
So the Holy Spirit given,
Falls upon us from on high.
What a wonderful salvation,
Where we always see His face!
What a peaceful habitation!
What a quiet resting place!
Public domain hymn text (published 1897). Words by Manie Payne Ferguson.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Manie Payne Ferguson was closely associated with the early American Holiness movement, and specifically with the Peniel Mission, an active evangelistic ministry based in Los Angeles that served the urban poor and unchurched through both practical relief work and direct evangelistic preaching.
She wrote this hymn’s text in 1897, during a particular period when the broader Holiness movement was placing steadily growing theological emphasis on a distinct, describable inward experience of settled, essentially complete spiritual peace — understood as made available specifically through the ongoing, continuous presence of the Holy Spirit within the individual believer’s life.
The hymn’s central governing image of ‘quietness’ experienced directly amid outward storms reflects that same specific and quite deliberate theological emphasis.
Holiness movement teaching and preaching of Ferguson’s own era sometimes described this as a distinct ‘second’ spiritual experience, genuinely available to believers beyond their initial conversion — one in which the individual believer moves decisively from ongoing internal spiritual struggle and uncertainty into a considerably more settled, stable, and lasting inward peace.
The hymn’s own chorus is built entirely around the striking paradox of genuine stillness found directly in the midst of an active outward storm. It also directly and quite deliberately echoes the well-known Gospel account of Jesus personally calming a violent storm on the Sea of Galilee, using only the simple spoken words ‘Peace, be still’ (Mark 4:39).
Ferguson’s own lyrics draw on that specific biblical scene visually and thematically, just as much as they separately reflect the specific inward spiritual experience the broader Holiness movement of her own particular religious era and community consistently emphasized in its teaching.
