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

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Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

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 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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Lowell Mason (1792–1872)

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.