198. Soldiers of Christ, arise
Charles Wesley, 1707-88
For comments on Charles Wesley see [Hymn 6].
“The Whole Armor of God” is the title of this hymn in Wesley’s Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1749. It is based on Ephesians 6:10-18: “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,” etc. The entire poem contains 16 double stanzas, of which our hymn is a selection of the first, second, and sixteenth.
MUSIC. DIADEMATA. For comments on this tune see [Hymn 118].
ASPIRATION AND HOPE
199. While Thee I seek, protecting Power
Helen M. Williams, 1762-1827
A hymn of faith and trust in God.
Helen Maria Williams, an English Unitarian, lived for some years with her sister who had married a French Protestant. It was during the period of the Revolution and the reign of terror. Being an outspoken republican, she was imprisoned by Robespierre, and was released only after his death in 1794. She was a woman of extraordinary intellectual strength and published many volumes on politics, religion, and literary questions, and finally her collected poems, entitled, Poems on Various Occasions. She lived in England and in France, and the closing years of her life were spent in Holland in the home of a nephew who was pastor of a Reformed Church in Amsterdam.