This is a new feature to our newsletter. Pastor John’s uncle, Maurice Bernier, is the music director for a church in Orlando, FL and he has given us permission to reproduce his newsletter articles for your enjoyment.
Isaac Watts, called the Father of English Hymnody, once said,
“The singing of God’s praise is the part of worship most clearly related to Heaven; but it’s performance among us is the worst on earth.”
Imagine a time when hymns were not sung in church services. Congregations in England in the early 1700’s generally followed a practice started by John Calvin, that of creating translations of the Psalms into the language of the day for congregational singing. The result was that it was usually a crude, dull and dreary affair.
Enter Isaac Watts. He was born in 1674 to a family of “Dissenters” or “Non-Conformists” while his father was in prison for his religious beliefs. It is said that his mother would often sit on a stone outside the prison nursing her infant son. Young Isaac demonstrated a remarkable degree of intelligence at an early age – he learned Latin by age 4, Greek by age 9, French by 11, and Hebrew by 13.
After returning home from a Sunday service one morning, Isaac complained to his father that Psalm-singing was boring and off-putting. His father said that if this is how he felt, then he should write a hymn suitable for congregational singing. He did. In fact, he wrote more than 697 hymns, including “O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “Marching to Zion,” and “Joy to the World.” (In addition to hymns, he also wrote a textbook on Logic that was used at Oxford, Cambridge, and later Harvard and Yale for many years, and writings on Philosophy, Metaphysics, Astronomy, Education and Children’s Poetry.)
Isaac Watts preached his first sermon at age 24 and was called to a pastorate in 1702 at age 27. He was awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1728. While in his mid-thirties, he had a serious illness that left him incapacitated for 4 years. He never fully recovered, but still continued his work as a pastor and writer. His physical appearance was unremarkable: he was short (5 feet tall), ugly (by contemporary reports), plagued by illness, spoke in a thin voice; and yet, hundreds of people would come to hear him preach.
At first, Watts’ hymns were not universally accepted. Some thought his hymns were “too worldly” for the church. Some congregations split, some were outraged, some pastors were fired. In time, however, he was recognized by both the Church of England and Dissenters. John Wesley had known his work for many years and, when Wesley published his first hymn book, one-third of the hymns were Watts’!
Isaac Watts died in 1748. A number of memorials exist in England, including one at Westminster Abbey.
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
(Isaac Watts 1674 - 1748)
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died.
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree
then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.