Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Summary

Hymns and Spiritual Songs, first published in London in 1707 and enlarged in 1709, is the collection that made Isaac Watts the most influential hymn writer in English. At the time most English congregations, especially among Dissenters and Presbyterians, sang only metrical versions of the Psalms, often in stiff, literal verse. Watts argued in his preface that Christians should be able to sing their faith in their own words and with the gospel made explicit, and he set out to provide hymns that ordinary congregations could sing to familiar tunes. The collection is divided into three books. Book I contains hymns based closely on passages of Scripture. Book II, the largest, is composed on divine subjects of Watts's own choosing: creation, the shortness of life, death and judgment, heaven, the cross, and the Christian life. Book III consists of hymns prepared for the Lord's Supper. Most use common, long or short metre so that they could be sung to tunes the congregation already knew, and each is headed by a title and often a biblical reference. Among the hymns still widely sung are 'When I survey the wondrous cross', which Matthew Arnold reportedly called the finest hymn in English, 'Alas! and did my Saviour bleed', 'Come, we that love the Lord', and 'There is a land of pure delight'. The verse is simple and direct but often vivid, with sharp images of time, death and heavenly glory. Watts marked some stanzas with brackets as optional, a practice the text preserves. Watts was criticized in his own day for replacing inspired Psalms with human compositions, and some churches resisted his hymns for decades. Over the eighteenth century, however, they spread through Dissenting, Methodist and evangelical Anglican congregations in Britain and America, preparing the way for the Wesleys and the Olney hymn writers. Watts is often called the father of English hymnody.

Top Lessons

• Singing in one's own words

  Watts believed worship songs should express Christian faith directly and clearly.

• Plain style and strong images

  Simple metre and vocabulary carry striking imagery.

• Making old texts new

  Watts reshaped biblical material in the language of the gospel for his own time.

• For the Christian reader

  Isaac Watts is often called the father of English hymnody. 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross', first published in this collection, is still sung throughout the English-speaking church. Watts wanted Christians to sing of Christ in their own words, following Paul's encouragement to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Colossians 3:16).

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