Dearest of all the names above

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Dearest of all the names above

Author: Isaac Watts
Published in 160 hymnals

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Audio files: MIDI

Piano/Organ
	The Cross Before Me (Flexible Piano Medl…

Representative Text

1 Dearest of all the names above,
My Jesus, and my God,
Who can resist Thy heavenly love,
Or trifle with Thy blood?

2 ’Tis by the merits of Thy death
The Father smiles again;
’Tis by Thine interceding breath
The Spirit dwells with men.

3 Till God in human flesh I see,
My thoughts no comfort find;
The holy, just, and sacred Three
Are terrors to my mind.

4 But if Immanuel’s face appear,
My hope, my joy begins;
His name forbids my slavish fear,
His grace removes my sins.

5 While Jews on their own law rely,
And Greeks of wisdom boast,
I love th’incarnate mystery,
And there I fix my trust.

Source: Book of Worship (Rev. ed.) #139

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Author: Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts was the son of a schoolmaster, and was born in Southampton, July 17, 1674. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor. In 1712, he accepted an invitation to visit Sir Thomas Abney, at his residence of Abney Park, and at Sir Thomas' pressing request, made it his home for the remainder of his life. It was a residence most favourable for his health, and for the prosecution of his literary… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Dearest of all the names above
Author:	Isaac Watts
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English

English

Possible Translations

إسم عزيز قد سما (Arabic)

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Notes

Dearest of all the names above. I. Watts. [Reconciliation through Christ.] First published in the 2nd edition of his Hymns and Sacred Songs, 1709, Bk. ii., No. 148, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled, "God reconciled in Christ." It was included in many of the older collections such as those of Whitefield and Toplady, and has continued to hold a prominent position in the hymnbooks to the present. Its use, in America especially, is very extensive. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

ALEXANDRIA (Arnold)

MARTYRDOM (Wilson)

MARTYRDOM was originally an eighteenth-century Scottish folk melody used for the ballad "Helen of Kirkconnel." Hugh Wilson (b. Fenwick, Ayrshire, Scotland, c. 1766; d. Duntocher, Scotland, 1824) adapted MARTYRDOM into a hymn tune in duple meter around 1800. A triple-meter version of the tune was fir…

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