The Cyber Hymnal ‎#10348

10348. Help, Lord! The Busy Foe (The Praying Spirit Breathe)

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.

Text Information

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

Tune Information

• Name: BEALOTH
• Composer: Lowell Mason (1843)
• Meter: SMD
• Key: A Major
• Copyright: Public Domain