1 Alas! what hourly dangers rise!
What snares beset my way!
To heaven, oh, let me lift mine eyes,
And hourly watch and pray.
2 How oft my mournful thoughts complain,
And melt in flowing tears!
My weak resistance, ah, how vain!
How strong my foes and fears!
3 O gracious God! in whom I live,
My feeble efforts aid;
Help me to watch, and pray, and strive,
Though trembling and afraid.
4 Increase my faith, increase my hope,
When foes and fears prevail;
And bear my fainting spirit up,
Or soon my strength will fail.
5 Oh, keep me in thy heavenly way,
And bid the tempter flee!
And let me never, never stray
From happiness and thee.
Source: Laudes Domini: a selection of spiritual songs, ancient and modern for use in the prayer-meeting #296
First Line: | Alas what hourly dangers rise |
Title: | Watchfulness and Prayer |
Author: | Anne Steele |
Meter: | 8.6.8.6 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Alas! what hourly dangers rise. Anne Steele. [Watchfulness.] First published in her Poems on Subjects chiefly Devotional, 1760, vol. i. pp. 79-80, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "Watchfulness and Prayer," Matt. xxvi. 7 It was also reprinted in subsequent editions of the Poems, and in Sedgwick's reprint of her Hymns, 1863. In Williams & Boden's Collection, 1801, No. 362, it was abbreviated to 4 stanzas, and this example has been mostly followed to the present day. Its use in Great Britain is very limited; but in America it is somewhat extensive, and varies in length from 3 to 5 stanzas, the Sabbath Hymn Book, 1858, No. 637, being an exception in favour of the complete text, with the single alteration of " my" to "mine eyes" in stanza 1.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)