750
November 1927
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
Announcing A New Book By Dr. John M. Maclnnis D ean of th e B ible In s titu te of Los Angeles
N 1674, a deacon of a nonconformist church in Southampton, England, was sentenced to a term in prison, he, for conscience sake, having vio lated one of the unjust laws of the time rel ative to worship. During this time a son was born in his humble home and the mother came often to sit on the prison steps, with the baby in her arms, to console her husband in his loneliness. It was thus that the father of Isaac Watts first looked upon his little son through prison bars. Young Isaac was a precocious child and took to books almost before he could talk plainly. He is said to have studied Latin at four and to have written verse at seven. This aptitude for poetry was an outstanding gift, and he would often repeat his couplets for the amusement of his elders. The novelty of this wore off after a time, especially with the father, who tried to curb this poetjc tendency, to no avail. Severe punishment was threatened, and the boy is reported to have plead for leniency with tears in his eyes and rhyme in his words: “O father, do some pity take, And I no more will verses make.” At eighteen he criticized the metrical psalms sung in the services of his father’s church, and his father challenged him to write something better. He accepted the challenge and during the- week wrote his first hymn, a paraphrase of Rev. 5 :6-12. It was sung the next Sun day evening, and others followed in rapid succession, be ing copied and sung from manuscript, until he had writ ten over one hundred, when they were published. This first hymn is still found in many standard hymn-books: ft “Behold the glories of the Lamb, Amidst His Father’s throne; Prepare new honors for his name, And songs before unknown.” Isaac Watts is known as the “Father of English Hymnody”—not because he was the first to write hymns in English, for he was preceded by Joseph Addison, Bishop Ken, John Milton, and many others—but because of the number and quality of his hymns. One of Watts’ greatest accomplishments was his paraphrasing of all the Psalms. Many of these, indeed, are classed with the hymns. For example: “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun,” is a versification of parts of Psalms, 72'. In all his rendering of the Psalms he put his verse into New Testament language. “I have expressed,” he says, “as I suppose David would have done had he lived in the days of Christianity.” During the one hundred and fifty years from the Ref ormation time to Watts’ period* the Psalter was used almost exclusively in the worship of all Protestant countries, and many metrical versions were published. And it was his happy blending of the two streams of worship songs, psalms and hymns, that has given Watts his high place in the ranks of hymn writers. “He was the first who succeeded in overcoming the prejudice which
HIGHER FUNDAMENTALISM A FISHERMAN 'S PH ILO SOPHY
“T h e H ig h er F undam entalism is th a t insight of a living experience w hich is th e light of life. It does no t ig n o re o r set aside d octrine. O n th e c o n trary , it grow s o ut of a sound doctrine, m aking possible tru e insights w hich provide a genuine an d a d eq u a te philosophy of life. A n a d eq u a te philosophy o r in te rp re ta tio n of life is th e explanation th a t satisfactorily solves th e problem w hich life itself p resen ts ;and m akes possible the tru e s t and highest kind of living.** READ DR. MAC INNIS’ BOOK It is an illum inating, p en etratin g discussion of such vital questions a s: “W h at is -th e origin an d m eaning of the w orld? W hy does it seem easier to do w ro n g th an to do rig h t? W hat is th e new royalty? W h at is the goal of history? Is a crisis theology philosophically sound? S u p er C loth $1 .5 0 If Money does n o t accom pany o rder, goods w ill be sen t C. O. D. If goods are to com e by m ail ad d 10% fo r postage. Send fo r a free copy of o u r com plete C atalog of Books, B ooklets, T rac ts, etc. B I O L A B O OK R OOM Bible Institute, Los Angeles, Calif.
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