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HELP, LORD! THE BUSY FOE

The Praying Spirit Breathe

Scripture Verse

Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Ephesians 5:18–19

Introduction

portrait
Lowell Mason (1792–1872)

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems, Vol­ume 1, 1749. The orig­in­al was head­ed, In a Hur­ry of Bu­si­ness. Ma­ny hym­nals omit the first stan­za.

Music: Bea­loth Low­ell Ma­son, Sac­red Harp 1843 (🔊 ).

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

Help, Lord! the bu­sy foe
Is as a flood come in!
Lift up a stand­ard, and o’er­throw
This soul dis­tract­ing sin.
This sud­den tide of care
Stem by that bloody tree,
Nor let the ris­ing tor­rent bear
My soul away from Thee.

The pray­ing spir­it breathe,
The watch­ing pow­er im­part,
From all en­tan­gle­ments b­eneath
Call off my anx­ious heart:
My fee­ble mind sus­tain
By world­ly thoughts op­pressed:
Appear, and bid me turn again
To my eter­nal rest.

Swift to my res­cue come,
Thine own this mo­ment seize,
Gather my wan­der­ing spir­it home,
And keep in per­fect peace,
Suffered no more to rove
O’er all the earth abroad,
Arrest the pri­son­er of Thy love,
And shut me up in God.