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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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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C. S. Lewis – death, Nov. 22, 1963

What God begets is God…What God creates is not God.

            – C. S. Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: Macmillan, 1945), 5.

 

…God has no history.  He is too completely and utterly real to have one.        

            – C. S. Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: Macmillan, 1945), 17.

 

When He said, “Be perfect,” He meant it…It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.  We are like eggs at present.  And you cannot go in indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg.  We must be hatched or go bad.

             – C. S. Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: Macmillan, 1945), 42.

 

It cost God nothing, as far as we know, to create nice things: but to convert rebellious wills cost Him the crucifixion.

            – C. S. Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: Macmillan, 1945), 55.

 

Clive Staples Lewis died this date. He had taught at Oxford (1924-1954) and Cambridge (1954-1963) universities. In his early thirties, Lewis was converted to Jesus Christ. He is best known for his children’s classic The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-1956), and for Screwtape Letters, Miracles,and Mere Christianity.  Lewis was born 11/29/1898, Belfast, Ireland.

 

 

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