So far in my series Then Sings My Soul: The Hymns of My Youth I seemed to be skipping right over Isaac Watts, but by pure coincidence I’ve now selected two of his in a row. This week’s selection is “When I Survey the Wond’rous Cross”, composed by Watts in 1707, being at that time “significant for being an innovative departure from the early English hymn style of only using paraphrased biblical texts.”
This is one of those hymns which make for “good theology,” though to be honest, there isn’t a lot of theology in it. What is there is of course deeply significant, and it’s become a common Easter hymn for Good Friday in particular. My childhood memories of this are of course that the song was veerrrryyy sslllooooowww… and the lyrics a bit cryptic, but I don’t think I was ever baffled by them. Older now and able to reflect upon them, they naturally become deeply significant, and a moving point of meditation.
When I Survey the Wond’rous Cross
When I survey the wond’rous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God,
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down,
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
The Northumbria Community has a beautiful Celtic-flavoured version of the song on one of their CDs; it changes the tune a bit but manages to sound traditional without being traditional… that makes sense. Give it a listen:
It is available for download on the Northumbria site… and unless I miss my guess (frequent commenter here) Steve Sensenig has recorded it on one of his CDs.
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November 18th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
With Advent coming in a couple of weeks, will you be posting about Christmas carols?
November 18th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Yes, I plan to switch over to carols soon. I’ve selected a carol for each week of Advent in my forthcoming book of Daily Offices for Advent based on John’s gospel. I’ll be blogging through it as well, so in a sense, most of the December hymns are preselected. The book should be available in a couple of days — in time for Advent this year, but not by much!
November 18th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Wow … that was a beautiful rendition. Of course, I’m partial to Celtic music in general anyway ;-)
November 19th, 2007 at 8:40 am
I just stumbled on your blog through Jonny and Andrew here in the UK. I actually love how you did your can of cambells soup that clicked through to your paypal. I would gladly buy you a can of soup … is there anyway you can tell me how you did that? I have asked several people and we are all stumped.
Thanks
Shannon
November 19th, 2007 at 10:08 am
Shannon,
Thanks for the visit, and no problem to explain… it’s simply a WordPress plugin called Buy Me A Beer that handles everything (other than setting up the PayPal account, of course). The plugin lets you select beer or coffee, but I hacked it to add soup. I deeply appreciate both beer and coffee, but for me at the moment any income from my writing goes toward basics like groceries, not extras. If you would like the hacked version with the soup can rather than the beer/coffee one, let me know and I’ll gladly make it available. This one only works with WordPress though, so I don’t know if that will help you.
The “Donate” button in the sidebar is all PayPal-generated. There are other plugins to do similar things, but this is the only one I’ve tried. At the moment I’m looking to devise a way of letting people pay for a download using PayPal, as I have an eBook of Advent prayers ready to go. I might end up figuring out how to do this outside of WordPress, we’ll see!
November 19th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Hey, I want that CD. Do you remember which one it is?
Also, I featured you at CCblogs.org today.
thanks,
gordon
November 19th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Gordon,
I don’t actually have the CDs, but I believe this track is on the Waymarks disc, available in the USA through Renovare.