Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts’ texts appear more often in the LDS hymnals than any other
hymnist. (See Author
Index.) Perhaps it would be good
for LDS hymn singers to pause and
learn a little about this man.
When Christian churches first began
singing as part of their worship services, church leaders insisted that
only the Psalms could be chanted or sung as they were the only hymns
given us by the Divine Being. The Psalms were literally lifted from the
Old Testament and music written to fit them. This had two drawbacks:
One, it required new tunes for each language as the number of syllables
per line would of course vary from language to language. Two, it limited the number of hymns to a mere
150 selections.
Within the English-speaking church it was
reasoned that paraphrasing the Psalms to fit standard metering and
rhyming schemes made sense as the task of composing music would be
greatly reduced - and being able to vary the tunes would help give each
Psalm a different feel for different occasions - when you only have 150
hymn texts to work with, you've got to do something! Not everyone was
convinced, however, and it was a difference of opinion that often split
congregations.
Added into this debate were those who saw
nothing wrong in writing entirely new hymn texts - original works that
celebrated the Gospel without having to be a retelling of a biblical
Psalm.
Into this world was born a young man
named Isaac Watts. Utilizing his natural-born talent for poetry and
rhyme, he became one of the English-speaking world's preeminent
psalmists and hymnists. So widely have his works been used that it is
virtually impossible to find a hymnal without him represented. When Emma
Smith complied the first LDS hymnal, sixteen of the ninety texts were by
Isaac Watts. The current LDS hymnal only contains nine of his works,
three of which were in Emma's 1835 hymnal.
Isaac Watts was born on July 27, 1674 at
Southampton, England - the eldest of nine children. His father, a
Nonconformist (a dissenter from the Anglican Church), he had been jailed
twice for refusing to follow the Church of England. Even as a small boy
Watts had a natural ability at versifying. At the age of seven young
Isaac wrote the following, showing the religious training he'd received
so far:
I am a vile polluted lump of earth
So I've continued ever since my birth;
Although Jehovah grace does give me,
As sure this monster Satan will deceive me.
Come therefore, Lord, from Satan's claws relieve me.
Although most modern Christians would
frown at such negative thoughts in such a young mind, there is no doubt
that the genius for his future works was firmly in place.
Isaac learned Greek, Latin, and Hebrew
from the rector of All Saints, who was also headmaster of a
Nonconformist Grammar School in Southampton. Because he followed in his
father's faith he was denied entrance to the universities in Cambridge
or Oxford. Instead he attended a Nonconformist Academy at Stoke
Newington in 1690, under the care of Thomas Rowe, pastor of the
Independent congregation at Girdlers’ Hall. Isaac joined this
congregation in 1693.
After completing his formal schooling at
the age of twenty, Watts spent two years at home. Early in this time he
complained to his father about the poor writing in the metered Psalms
that were then sung in the churches. His father challenged him to do
better, and he did just that - he sat down to write, and that evening
the congregation sang the first of Isaac's 600 hymns. With a fervor
unknown to him until this point he spent the next two years writing text
after text after text. Most of his best hymns were written during these
two years.
One of the truly revolutionary things
about Watts' psalms is that they are not a mere repetition of the
biblical psalms, changing words only in an attempt to fit them into
English meter and rhyme; this was what those before him had done.
Instead, he took psalmody a step further by writing texts that
commentated and celebrated the theme and meaning of the psalm.
Additionally, he felt the most important thing for him to do was to
incorporate the fulfillment of the psalmic words as seen through
Christian eyes.
At the end of these two years Isaac left
home and spent five years as a tutor to the son of eminent Puritan. He
preached his first sermon at age 24, while still employed as a tutor. In
the next three years he preached frequently, and in 1702 was ordained as
pastor of the Independent congregation in Mark Lane. His health began to
fail within two years of his ordination, and Samuel Price was appointed
as his assistant. In 1712 a fever destroyed his health, and Price became
co-pastor to help carry the load.
It was at the time of this illness that
Isaac became the house guest of Sir Thomas Abney - he lived with Abney
and with other members of the family the rest of his life. Given his own
quarters and all the free time he needed, he continued to write hymns as
well as books of philosophy and logic.
In 1728 the University of Edinburgh
awarded Watts a Doctorate of Divinity. He died on November 25, 1748, at
Stoke Newington, England, and he is buried in Bunhill Fields Cemetery,
London, near the grave of great Christian writer John Bunyan.
The three hymnal works Isaac Watts is
best remembered for are:
Hymns and Spiritual Songs (three volumes),
1707-1709
The Divine and Moral Songs for the Use of
Children,
1715
The Psalms of David,
17191
Benjamin Franklin published Watts' Psalms
of David in Philadelphia in 1729; the first American printing of Watt's
work. It was published again ten years later in Boston, and they became
some of the most-beloved texts for congregational worship by the time of
the Revolutionary War. There would have been plenty of copies available
to find their way into Emma Smith's hands while compiling the 1835 LDS
Hymnal.
Besides the Isaac Watts hymns in our
current hymnal, Watts also wrote the immortal “When I Survey the
Wondrous Cross”, included in previous LDS hymnals and
sung many times by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
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