“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.”
Separate-Holy 