In 1736 a piece of correspondence from an Anglican minister by the name of George Thomson (1698-1782) arrived at the home of Lady Mary Abney in Stoke Newington, then a village just north of London, now merely a district of the English capital. Thomson was the Anglican vicar of St Gennys, an isolated, windswept village in North Cornwall perched atop of cliffs overlooking the Atlantic. A couple of years prior to writing this letter, Thomson had experienced a remarkable conversion that would transform him into one of Cornwall's most effective evangelists. His letter was addressed to the well-known hymn-writer and author Isaac Watts (1674­1748), who had lived with the Abneys since 1714. Sir Thomas and Lady Mary Abney were members of the Congregationalist church which Watts pastored in London and had nursed Watts through numerous bouts of ill­ness. It was amidst the quiet and seclusion of their fine estates that Watts had found an ideal setting to employ and develop his gifts of poetry and prose.

The following extract from the conclusion of Thomson's letter affords an excellent vantage-point from which to begin to understand something of the significance of Watts' life and ministry:

Poet, Divine, Saint, the delight, the guide, the wonder of the virtuous world; permit,

Reverend Sir, a stranger unknown, and likely to be for ever unknown, to desire one blessing from you in a private way. 'Tis this, that when you approach the Throne of Grace, and lift up holy hands, when you get closest to the Mercy-seat, and wrestle mightily for the peace of Jerusalem, you would breathe one petition for my soul's health.

In return I promise you a share for life in my unworthy prayers, who honour you as a father and a brother (though differently ordered) and conclude myself,

Your affectionate humble Servant,
George Thomson

Watts, like his hosts, the Abneys, had firm roots among the Dissenters, those seventeenth and eighteenth-century believers who felt constrained by their understanding of Scripture to worship outside of the Church of England in Presbyterian, Congregationalist and Baptist churches. It must have been, therefore, something of a surprise to Watts to have received this letter of adulation from an Anglican minister. Thomson's remark about his being 'differently ordered' reflects this denominational difference between writer and recipient. The effusive, and by our standards, flowery praise that Thomson lavishes on Watts is thus particularly noteworthy.

Thomson confesses that Watts' hymns were the medium by which God had made Watts a 'father' and 'guide' in the Christian life for the newly converted Anglican vicar. Nor was Thomson alone in this view of Watts. Despite Watts' church connections, there were numerous pious Anglicans like Thomson who deeply appreciated the Dissenter's writings, in particular his verse and hymns. Indeed, down to the present day there have been multitudes from widely different denominational backgrounds who have regarded Watts' hymns in a similar way to Thomson — as a helpful guide to understanding and living the Christian life.

It is far from inappropriate, therefore, on the 250th anniversary of Watts' death to spend some time reflecting on Watts as a hymn-writer, especially on the way that Watts' hymns can serve as a means of deepening our convictions about God's amazing love. After a brief sketch of his life, one hymn in particular, 'When I survey the wondrous cross', is taken as an example of the way in which Watts' hymns can help us begin to fathom the amazing nature of the love of God. This hymn is not chosen arbitrarily, for, in the words of one recent commentator on this hymn, Peter Newman Brooks, it is 'arguably the most moving, and even perhaps the greatest of the hymns of Christendom'.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748): A Sketch of His Life⤒🔗

Watts was born to Dissenting parents in Southampton, England, on 17 July 1674. His father, who was also named Isaac, was a prosperous clothier as well as being a schoolmaster. A deacon in the Congregationalist church, later known as Above Bar Congregational Church, the elder Watts suffered imprisonment at least twice for refusing to give up worship with this church. From 1660 to 1688 the Congregationalists, along with other groups outside of the Church of England, found themselves in the fierce fire of persecution, when a series of laws were passed which made it illegal to worship in any other setting but that of the Established Church. Of Watts' mother, Sarah Taunton, we know little beyond the fact that she was of Huguenot descent and after Isaac's birth would nurse him while visiting her husband in prison.

The younger Watts experienced what he later described as 'considerable convictions of sin' when he was fourteen. Happily, they issued in a sound conversion in 1689. The following year he went to London to spend four years studying in a Dissenting seminary. After graduation in 1694 he went back to live with his parents in Southampton for over two years.

Apparently it was during this time in Southampton that he began to write hymns.

In October of 1696, he took a position as the tutor of the household of a wealthy Nonconformist by the name of John Hartopp (c. 1637-1722), one of the most eminent English Congregationalists during the period of the Restoration and the early eighteenth century. A member of the congregation of the well-known theologian John Owen (1616-1683), the congregation that Watts would later pastor, Hartopp had enjoyed an intimate friendship with this eminent Puritan divine up until the latter's death in 1683.

Watts preached his first sermon in 1698 and four years later was called to be the pastor of what was the most influential and wealthiest Congregationalist church in London, Mark Lane Congregational Church, where John Owen had at one time been the minister and where Watts would serve for the rest of his life. A serious illness in 1712, though, brought Watts to the home of Sir Thomas and Lady Mary Abney, at Theobalds, near Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. Watts had intended on staying only a few weeks, until he recovered his health, but he ended up remaining with this family till his death thirty-six years later! Thus, the last half of Watts' life was spent in 'a middle-class world of security, culture, piety, and refinement'. An assistant minister, Samuel Price, was appointed early on in Watts' pastorate, enabling Watts to give significant amounts of time to study and writing when he was not ill.

Watts never married. After a proposal of marriage was turned down by Elizabeth Singer (1674-1737), also an accomplished poet, he never again seriously contemplated the married estate. According to one source, Elizabeth told him that 'though she loved the jewel she could not admire the casket which contained it', a not very felicitous reference to Watts' physical appearance.

Watts' literary activity up until around 1720 was primarily in the realm of poetry. By way of contrast, during his final twenty-eight years Watts almost exclusively devoted himself to writing prose. According to tradition, his first incentive to write hymns came when he complained to his father of the general poverty, as he felt it, of the psalmody in their Southampton church. His father's response was a challenge to his son to do better. Watts' resulting work as a hymn-writer led to his being often called 'the father of English hymnody'.

In 1707 Watts published his first collection of hymns, entitled Hymns and Spiritual Songs, one of the earliest English hymnals. Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, a recasting of the psalms in the light of the New Testament for the purpose of public worship, appeared in 1719. In Watts' words, in this particular book he chose not 'to express the ancient Sense and Meaning of David, but have rather exprest myself as I may suppose David would have done, had he lived in the Days of Christianity'. Examples of such 'Christian paraphrases' of the Psalms would definitely include ('O God, Our Help in Ages Past', based on Psalm 90, and 'Jesus Shall Reign', drawn from Psalm 72. But let us turn to one of his early hymns that is not rooted in a psalm, 'When I survey the wondrous cross', to see a concrete illustration of how Watts' hymns do function as a means of deep­ening Christian conviction about the love of God and so a means of kindling devotion.

'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross'←⤒🔗

This much-loved and much-sung hymn has been widely acknowledged as one of the finest hymns ever written. Erik Routley, a hymnologist of this century, describes it as 'the most penetrating of all hymns, the most demand­ing, the most imaginative'. It was originally written by Watts in 1707 as a communion hymn, appearing in the third part of his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, with the title 'Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ' and a sub-title reference to Galatians 6:14.

Stanza 1: When I survey the wondrous Cross
                On which the Prince of Glory dy'd,
                My richest Gain I count but Loss,
                and pour Contempt on all my Pride.

The hymn begins with an unusual word: 'Survey', not 'behold' nor 'perceive', but 'survey'. At first glance, it appears a somewhat formal and cold word. But in the Oxford English Dictionary 'survey' is defined thus: 'To take a broad general, or comprehensive view of; to view or examine in its whole extent, to consider or contemplate as a whole'. In asking us, therefore, to 'survey' the cross Watts is urging us not to be content with a brief and hasty glance at the crucifixion of Christ, but to look at the full extent of the significance of the Cross, for rightly viewed, it is a place of wonders.

The second line originally was 'Where the young Prince of Glory dy'd'. Watts changed the original line to the present one when it was pointed out to him that the New Testament puts no particular emphasis on the age of Christ at his death. It is worth remembering that when the hymn was first published Watts himself was a young man of thirty-one. It may have been this that brought home to him the fact that the Prince of glory laid down his life in the bloom and vigour of his manhood. The title 'Prince of Glory' that Watts gives to Christ is drawn from 1 Corinthians 2:8, where Christ is described as the 'Lord of glory' and where the phrase 'of glory' indicates Christ's natural right to glory.

Lines three and four are obviously taken from Philippians 3:7-9. In the light of the Cross Paul saw that he had to write off as sheer loss his own right­eousness. It simply was not good enough for God. Instead he had to humble himself and accept by faith God's gift of righteousness in Christ crucified. A serious, prolonged reflection on the Cross leaves no room for spiritual pride.

Properly viewed, the Cross leads to a tremendous humbling.

Stanza 2: 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.

This second stanza brings us back to the theme verse that Watts assigned to this hymn: Galatians 6:14. When Paul penned these words, he did so as one whose standards of value had been turned upside down. The world he knew, like Watts' world and our world, boasted in many things, pursued many things, was charmed by many things. In the light of the Cross, however, their value is either negated or minimized. 'The Cross enables us to sort out our priorities and rethink our scale of values'.

Watts' high Christology in this stanza is especially noteworthy. Who is Christ? He is 'my God'. Watts wrote these words in a day when the intel­lectual and theological climate increasingly regarded the doctrine of Christ's deity with suspicion and the doctrine of the Trinity was under heavy attack. In this way, the hymn is a means of apologetic response to the intellectual currents of the day and a way of inculcating doctrine in the hearts of the faithful.

But these words also serve to highlight the wonder and amazement that should be ours as we think about the Cross. That the sinless Son of God was willing to die in order to break the power of this vain world over the human soul — should this not cause profound wonder and awe at the love of Christ and of the One who sent him into this world to save sinners?

Stanza 3: 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?

As we look at the Cross steadily, as we survey it, we see the supreme revelation of God's heart of love for sinners. 'See, from his head, his hands, his feet', it is blood that flowed, but the one who 'surveys' the Cross properly sees 'sorrow and love'. Sorrow, Christ's sorrow in his death (see Isaiah 53:3); love, his love for us (see Romans 5:8). 'Did e'er such love and sorrow meet?' Watts' rhetorical question clearly expects a 'no' for an answer.

Again, Watts looks at the crown of thorns, and sees not the cruel wreath of thorns but a glittering crown encircling Christ's brow. What is the Cross to the one who views it aright but a revelation of the kingship of Christ over sin and the world, over death and the devil.

One might be inclined to argue that the flowing wounds in this third stanza and the robe of crimson in the fourth are not meant to be visualized, that they are conventional Christian images, not intended to startle or to bother the mind's eye. The injunction to 'See' and the vividly pictorial quality of the images indicate otherwise. Yet, Watts' stress does not linger on the visual; the last two lines of stanza three pose rhetorical questions that are focused at the heart.

Stanza 4: His dying crimson, like a Robe,
                Spreads o'er his Body on the Tree,
                Then am I dead to all the Globe,
                And all the Globe is dead to me.

Ever since 1757, this fourth stanza has been omitted. One can see why. The picture of Jesus bathed in his blood which, 'like a robe spreads o'er his body on the tree' is so striking and startling as to be almost revolting. But plainly Watts intends it to be so. He wants to shock and disturb us, to jolt us out of any complacency and make us see in the crucifixion of Jesus the fearful and horrible thing it is.

When Paul wrote Galatians 6:14, crucifixion was considered so horrible, so loathsome that the Latin word crux (cross) was considered unmentionable in polite Roman society. Even when a person was being condemned to death by crucifixion the sentence used an archaic formula which served as a sort of euphemism: arbori infelici suspendito, 'hang him on the unlucky tree'. Similarly the Greek word for 'cross', stauros, inspired comparable dread and disgust. Evidently Watts is seeking to recapture something of that shock with the first two lines of this stanza.

Lines three and four are a further reference to the theme verse, Galatians 6:14. The importance of the conjunction 'then' should not be overlooked. If we 'survey' the Cross properly, it radically alters our relationship to the world. We who embrace the Cross and make it our boast become alienated from the world, its evil and corruption, its empty pomp and show, its false values and standards.

Again, note, as in stanza 3, Watts begins with a vivid picture that he wants us to visualize — the physical violence of the crucifixion — but this is not where he wants us to remain. He wants us to see the horror of the crucifix­ion, but to go beyond it to its meaning: for the stress in lines three and four falls on our death to the world.

Stanza 5: 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.  

This stanza well depicts what lies at the heart of Watts' evangelicalism — the Cross. But notice, he views the Cross against the vastness of this world, surrounded by the vast distances of the universe. Watts regularly gives his hymns a cosmic background. By the early eighteenth century, the scientific revolution that shattered the mediaeval earth-centred universe was complete, through the work of scientists like Nicolaus Copernicus (1475-1543), Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), and above all, Isaac Newton (1642-1727). The universe was seen to be much vaster than had been hitherto thought. Watts was deeply impressed by this. In his hymns there is a great sense of 'the spaciousness of nature, of the vastness of time'. It is this cosmic outlook that lies behind and informs this first line of the final stanza.

This vast universe — were it even Watts' to give — would not be a gift large enough to repay God for what he has given us through the Cross. What Watts does have, though, is his soul — what he is, and his life — what he does, and his all — what he has. God's total and amazing love demands his total and awe-filled surrender. Finally, we see in this last stanza the keynote of worship: wonder at God's amazing love and his desire for intimacy with men and women.