Charles Wesley
(1707-1788)
So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west,
and His glory from the rising of the sun.
When the enemy shall come in like a flood,
the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.
Isaiah 59:19 KJV
Help, Lord! The busy foe
Is as a flood come in!
Lift up a standard, and o’erthrow
The soul-distracting sin:
This sudden tide of care
Roll back, O God, from me,
Nor let the rapid current 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,
Thy 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.1
- This last stanza is quoted by John Wesley in A Plain Account of Christian Perfection: Part 2. ↩
