A stanza was omitted from a hymn by Isaac Watts by Dr. Worcester, and he was compelled by public sentiment to replace it in his next collection. Who was right—Dr. Worcester, or Watts and the church public?
“But while I bled and groaned and died, I ruined Satan’s Throne; High on my cross I hung and spy’d The monster tumbling down.”
What a travesty in this stanza of Christ’s words, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven”!
The omission of all the older hymns regarding “the state of the unpenitent dead” in our more recent hymnals is due to their usually rather lurid expressions, going beyond those of the Scriptures, to the reaction in the church at large against the rather mechanical and heartless emphasis of the painful doctrine—not only in hymns, but in sermons as well—and also to the realization that it is not a theme fitted for singing.
What modern congregation could sing Watts’ stanza formulating the doctrine,
“Up to the courts where angels dwell, It [the soul] mounts triumphant there; Or devils plunge it down to hell In infinite despair”?
When we come to the hymns constructed by selecting stanzas from long poems—e.g., by John Keble or by John Greenleaf Whittier—we reach marvels of skill in selection and co-ordination that have greatly enriched English hymnody.
_Reconstructing and Rewriting Faulty Hymns._
John Wesley inveighed against “hymn-cobblers,” but he was a most efficient and skillful “hymn-cobbler” himself. He deserves high commendation for his literary skill and taste in cutting the rough diamonds that passed through his editorial hands. A few instances will illustrate his success.
“Before Jehovah’s awful throne” is recognized as one of Watts’ noblest hymns of worship. But it is Wesley’s reconstruction that brought out its essential nobility.
Watts began it in rather mechanical fashion,
“Sing to the Lord with joyful voice, Let every land his name adore; The British Isles shall send the noise Across the ocean to the shore.”
Wesley omitted this stanza entirely. Beginning with the second stanza,
“With gladness bow before his throne, And let his presence raise your joys; Know that the Lord is God alone And formed our soul and framed our voice”
(which shows that Watts’ inspiration had begun to rise), Wesley transformed it into a majestic expression of pure worship: