The Christian — Warfare and Pilgrimage

My soul, be on thy guard!

No. 601
Metre S. M.
Tune LABAN.
Words George Heath.
Music Lowell Mason.
Key C major
Singing key B♭ major
Time 4/4
3 stanzas

Words

My soul, be on thy guard!Ten thousand foes arise;The hosts of sin are pressing hardTo draw thee from the skies.

O watch, and fight, and pray!The battle ne'er give o'er;Renew it boldly every day,And help divine implore.

Ne'er think the victory won,Nor lay thine armor down;Thy arduous task will not be doneTill thou obtain the crown.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: running head «THE CHRISTIAN—WARFARE AND PILGRIMAGE.»; hymn number «601» (large), tune name «LABAN. S. M.» centred over the music (condensed capitals), «LOWELL MASON.» at the right (capitals and small capitals). Stanza 1 is printed between the staves as one running line of small condensed type, each phrase roughly under its notes, with «1.» before «My»; in it «a-rise» is divided by a hyphen, while «thousand» and «pressing» are printed whole under their two notes. Stanzas 2–3 are printed as text in the left column below the music, under the reference line «558, 236, 266.» in italics (= may also be sung to the tunes of hymns 558, 236 or 266), with the stanza numbers printed without a full stop («2 O watch»), numbered «2.» and «3.» here like stanza 1. «George Heath.» in italics after stanza 3. The print sets a thin space before «!» and «;» («guard !», «a-rise ;», «pray !», «o'er ;», «down ;»); it is closed up here. The printer's curly apostrophes are written straight («ne'er», «o'er», «Ne'er»). Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's. Lines 2 and 4 of the text stanzas are indented in the print.