Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
1 Peter 5:8
Words: George Heath, Hymns and Poetic Essays Sacred to the Public and Private Worship of the Deity, and to Religious and Christian Improvement 1781.
Music: Laban Lowell Mason, 1830 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good picture of Heath (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
My soul, be on thy guard;
Ten thousand foes arise;
The hosts of sin are pressing hard
To draw thee from the skies.
O watch, and fight, and pray;
The battle ne’er give o’er;
Renew it boldly every day,
And help divine implore.
Ne’er think the victory won,
Nor lay thine armor down;
The work of faith will not be done,
Till thou obtain the crown.
Fight on, my soul, till death
Shall bring thee to thy God;
He’ll take thee, at thy parting breath,
To His divine abode.