Come, let us lift our joyful eyes. I. Watts. [Christ the Mediator.] This is No. 108, Bk. ii., of his Hymns and Sacred Songs, 1707, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and is entitled, "Access to a throne of grace by a Mediator." In the older collections, as G. Whitefield's, 1753, and others, it was given in full, but in modern hymnals stanzas ii. and iii. are usually omitted, most editors both in Great Britain and America declining to maintain concerning the Throne of God:—
“Once 'twas a seat of dreadful wrath,
And shot devouring flame;
Our God appeared consuming fire,
And Veng'ance was His name.
“Rich were the drops of Jesus' blood,
That calm'd His frowning face,
That sprinkled o'er the burning Throne,
And turned the wrath to grace."
This hymn is sometimes misdated 1719, the date of Watts's Psalms.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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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