Help, Lord! The Busy Foe

Representative Text

1 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.

2 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.

3 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.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #10348

Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Help, Lord! the busy foe
Title: Help, Lord! The Busy Foe
Author: Charles Wesley
Meter: 6.6.8.6 D
Source: Hymns and Sacred Poems Vol. 1, 1749
Language: English
Notes: The original was headed "In a Hurry of Business." Many hymnals omit the first stanza
Copyright: Public Domain

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The Cyber Hymnal #10348
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The Cyber Hymnal #10348

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