Isaac Watts – died

ON THIS DATE

Isaac Watts died 11/25/1748.   Born (7/17/1674) eldest of 8 children of a Dissenter pastor, Watts learned Latin by 4, Greek at 9, French at 11, & Hebrew at 13.  This “Father of modern hymnology” also wrote Logick (1725), Knowledge of the Heavens and Earth (1726),  Philosophical Essays (1733),  The Improvements of the Mind (1741),  ALL used as Texts for decades at such “little known” colleges as Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard & Yale!  Isaac was only 5’ tall, had a disproportionately large head, & never married.

His nearly 600 hymns include “At the Cross” “Come We That Love the Lord” “Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun” “Am I a Soldier of the Cross?” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” “O God Our Help in Ages Past” & “Joy To the World.”

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.

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John Eliot – founded, Aug. 22, 1670

“Christ is the only right Heir of the Crown of England”

 

His last words were “welcome joy!”

 

John Eliot a Puritan “missionary” to the American Indians on this date,8/22/1670, founded a church for Indians atMartha’s Vineyard,Massachusetts, and became known as “the Indian apostle.”

 

Earlier he had published The Christian Commonwealth: or, The Civil Policy Of The Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ.   This was the first book on politics penned by an American.  It also became the first book an American government had banned.

 

Eliot was born in 1604 at Widford, Hertfordshire, England, attended Jesus College, Cambridge, became assistant to Thomas Hooker at a school in Little Baddow, Essex.  Eliot emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, arriving 11/3/1631.  He died 5/21/1690.

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James Russell Lowell – death, Aug. 8, 1891

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind. – James Russell Lowell (exact source unknown)

Children are God’s Apostles, sent forth, day by day, to preach of love, and hope, and peace. – James Russell Lowell (exact source unknown)

Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof; it is temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship. – James Russell Lowell (exact source unknown)

Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found.             – James Russell Lowell (exact source unknown)

James Russell Lowell died this date,8/12/1891, atCambridge,Massachusetts, where he was born2/22/1819).  He was both a Poet and a Statesman.

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John Hooper – Martyred, Feb. 9, 1555

“Imprisonment is painful, but liberty, on ill conditions, is worse. The prison stinks, yet not so much as the sweet houses where the fear of God is wanting. I must be alone and solitary; it is better so to be, and have God with me, than to be in bad company. The loss of goods is great, but the loss of grace and the favor of God is greater. I cannot tell how to answer before great men, and learned men; yet is it better to do that, than to stand naked before God’s tribunal. I shall die by the hands of cruel men; but he is blessed who loseth his life, and findeth life eternal. There is neither felicity nor adversity in the world that is great, if it be weighed with the joys and pains of the world to come.”

                                                – Reported to be from a letter Hooper penned in prison.

John Hooper was martyred this date, 2/9/1555.  Some time after receiving his Bachelor of Arts from Cambridge he was converted to Christ by the writings of the German reformers.  At one point he felt obliged to flee to France and was briefly associate Huguenots. Later he was associated with Bullinger (Zwingli’s successor).  He returned to England and under Edward VI, was made Bishop of Gloucester.

In the providence of God Edward died.  He was followed by Queen Mary and she as a Roman Catholic required Hooper’s death.  Thus the “Father of the Puritans” was burned at the stake in the 60^th year of his life. He was born c. 1495, at Somersetshire, England.

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Oliver Wendell Holmes, M.D. – death, Oct. 7, 1894

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,

Sails the unshadowed main, –

The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings

In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,

And coral reefs lie bare,

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

 

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;

Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,

As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,

Before thee lies revealed, —

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

 

Year after year beheld the silent toil

That spread his lustrous coil;

Still, as the spiral grew,

He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,

Stole with soft step its shining archway through,

Built up its idle door,

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

 

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,

Child of the wandering sea,

Cast from her lap, forlorn!

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born

Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!

While on mine ear it rings,

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings: –

 

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,

As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,

Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!

 

Oliver Wendell Holmes, M.D., died this date, 10/7/1894, at Boston, Massachusetts.   Holms published several works in the medical field, but is more remembered for his poems such as “Old Ironsides,” “The Last Leaf,” and the above.  Holmes was born 8/29/1809 (same year as President Lincoln) at Cambridge, the son of a minister.

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Thomas Tenison – birth, Sep. 29, 1636

Thomas Tenison was born this date 9/29/1636, near Cambridge, England.  He was a voice for Jesus Christ during the reign of James II.  He served as bishop of Lincoln and archbishop of Canterbury and founded a free library. One source said he was “a strenuous opponent of the Church of Rome.”  Probably the most important thing Tenison did was to found the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (1701).

He passed from this life 12/14/1715 at London.

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John George Douglas Sutherland Campbell – death, May 2, 1914

Unto the hills around do I lift up my longing eyes
O whence for me shall my salvation come, from whence arise?
From God, the Lord, doth come my certain aid,
From God, the Lord, who heaven and earth hath made.

 

He will not suffer that thy foot be moved: safe shalt thou be.
No careless slumber shall His eyelids close, who keepeth thee.
Behold, He sleepeth not, He slumbereth ne’er,
Who keepeth Israel in His holy care.

 

Jehovah is Himself thy Keeper true, thy changeless Shade;
Jehovah thy Defense on thy right hand Himself hath made.
And thee no sun by day shall ever smite;
No moon shall harm thee in the silent night.

 

From every evil shall He keep thy soul, from every sin;
Jehovah shall preserve thy going out, thy coming in.
Above thee watching, He Whom we adore
Shall keep thee henceforth, yea, forevermore.

 

John George Douglas Sutherland Campbell died this date (5/2/1914) at East Cowes, Isle of Wight.  John was Ninth Duke of Argyll and Marquess [mär’ kwis] of Lorne, attended Eton St. Andrews and Trinity College, Cambridge.  In 1871 he married Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, daughter of Queen Victoria of Britain.  Campbell was a Member of Parliament, Governor General of Canada (1878-1883), and Governor and Constable of Windsor Castle.  In 1882 he founded the Royal Society of Canada to promote the arts and sciences.  John wrote: The Book of Psalms, Li­ter­al­ly Ren­dered in Verse and Canadian Life and Scenery.  He was born 8/6/1845 in Westminster, Middlesex, England.

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – death, Mar. 24, 1882

“Village Blacksmith”

Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arm
Are strong as iron bands.

His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate`er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.

Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low.

And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly,
Like chaff from a threshing-floor.

He goes on Sunday to the church,
And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter`s voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice.

It sounds to him like her mother`s voice,
Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more
How in the grave she lies;
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes
A tear out of his eyes.

Toiling, – rejoicing, – sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close;
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night`s repose.

Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
For the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow died this date (3/24/1882) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He wrote “Psalm of Life” “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”  “Evangeline” “Paul Revere’s Ride” etc

.

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James Russell Lowell – birth, Feb. 22, 1819

“Once to Every Man and Nation”

 

Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ’twixt that darkness and that light.

 

Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ’tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.

 

By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track,
Toiling up new Calv’ries ever with the cross that turns not back;
New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth,
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.

 

Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.

James Russel Lowell was born this date (2/22/1819) in Cambridge, MA.  Lowell wrote this poem (one of this many poems) as protest to America’s war with Mexico.

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Isaac Watts – death, Nov. 25, 1748

“Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed?”  (stanzas 1,3,5)

 

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

Refrain

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

 

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

 

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.       (Underlining -eab)

 

Isaac Watts died this day in England, his native land.  He is known for many worshipful hymns and, of course for, “Joy to the World.”  The average reader may be unaware that Watts also wrote, Logick (1725)  Knowledge of the Heavens and Earth (1726)  Philosophical Essays (1733)  The Improvements of the Mind (1741) all used for decades at Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, and Yale!

 

Watts is said to have rhymed so much as a kid that his dad wanted it stopped to which Isaac replied “O father, do some pity take

                                                And I will no more verses make.”

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