Wilhelm Erasmus Arends

Arends, Wilhelm Erasmus, son of E. F. Arnds, pastor at Langenstein, near Halberstadt, was born at Langenstein, Feb. 5,1677. He became, in 1707, pastor at Crottorf, near Halberstadt, and in 1718, pastor of the church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Halberstadt. He died at the latter place, May 16,1721 (Koch, iv. 389; Allg. Deutsche Biog., i. 516; manuscript from Pastor Spierling, Halberstadt, and Pastor Schafft, Langenstein). He is said to have contributed three hymns to pt. ii., 1714, of Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch Of these Nos. 118, 303 are ascribed to him at p. 3 of the Grischow-Kirchner Nachricht, 1771, to Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch, while the other is left anonymous. It is:—
Rüstet euch ihr Christenleute. [Christian Warfare.] First published as No. 360 in 1714 as above, in 4 stanzas of 11 lines. Dr. Jacobs of Wernigerode informs me that Count Christian Ernst of Wernigerode (d. 1771), a well-known German hymnologist, ascribed it to Arends in a marked copy of the 1741 ed. of Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch. Koch styles it "a call to arms for spiritual conflict and victory." Included in many later hymnbooks, and recently as No. 675 in the Berlin Geistliche Liedersegan, ed. 1863.
Translation in common use:—
Christians, prayer may well employ you. A full and good translation contributed by J. M. Sloan as No. 289 to Wilson's Service of Praise, 1865. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)