1 My thoughts that often mount the skies,
Go search the world beneath,
Where nature all in ruin lies,
And owns her sovereign death.
2 The tyrant how he triumphs here,
His trophies spread around!
And heaps of dust and bones appear
Through all the hollow ground.
3 Those skulls, what ghastly figures now!
How loathsome to the eyes!
Those are the heads we lately knew
So beauteous and so wise.
4 But where the souls those deathless things,
That left their dying clay?
My thoughts now stretch out all your wings,
And trace eternity!
5 O that unfathomable sea!
Those deeps without a shore!
Where living waters gently play,
Or fiery billows roar.
6 There we shall swim in heavenly bliss,
Or sink in flaming waves,
While the pale carcase breathless lies
Among the silent graves.
7 "Prepare us Lord, for thy right hand,
Then come the joyful day,
Come death, and some celestial band,
To bear our souls away."
Divine Hymns, or Spiritual Songs: for the use of religious assemblies and private Christians 1800
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 >
My Starred Hymns
My FlexScores
My Hymnals
My Purchased Files