Whence do our mournful thoughts arise? I. Watts. [Consolation.] 1st published in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and based upon Is. xl. 27-30 (ed. 1709, Bk. i. No. 32). Another form of this hymn was given in the 1745 Draft of the Scottish Translations and Paraphrases, No. xvi., in 7 stanzas of 4 lines as "Why pour'st thou forth thine anxious plaint." In the Drafts of 1751 and 1781 further alterations were introduced until it assumed the authorized form as in the Translations and Paraphrases, of 1781. In the markings by the eldest daughter of W. Cameron the alterations of 1781 are said to be by him. The designation of the hymn is I. Watts, 1707; Translations & Paraphrases, 1745; W. Cameron, 1781. In the American Prayer Book Collection, 1826, and several later hymnals it begins "Why mournest thou, my anxious soul?" Sometimes stanzas iv.-viii. are found as a separate hymn, beginning, "Supreme in wisdom as in power," as in W. F. Stevenson's Hymns for the Church and Home, 1873. In one or two American Unitarian hymnals a cento therefrom is also given as "Mere human power shall fast decay." In Jane E. Leeson's Paraphrases and Hymns, 1853, the 1781 text is rewritten in three parts as:—(1) "Thus saith the Holy One, to Whom"; (2) "O Jacob and O Israel”; (3) "God giveth power unto the faint."
--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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