is so great a hymn, and consecrated by so many hallowed associations,
that comment is superfluous and criticism impertinent. The third, ‘The
New Testament in the Blood of Christ, or The New Covenant Sealed,’ is
absent from the chief hymnals to-day with the exception of the
Methodist, to which it was added in 1830. It begins—
‘The promise of my Father’s love
Shall stand for ever good,’
He said; and gave His soul to death,
And sealed the grace with blood.
Watts wrote no great festival hymns to be compared with ‘Hark! how all
the welkin rings,’ or ‘Hail the day that sees Him rise.’ His best work
is found in his hymns and spiritual songs, some of which are among the
most spiritual and most scriptural ever written. The tone of triumph
is comparatively rare, though now and again, as in ‘Join all the
glorious names,’ he rises as high as ever Charles Wesley rose in his
hymns for ‘Believers rejoicing.’ Such are, ‘My God, the spring of all
my joys’; ‘Come, we that love the Lord’; ‘Jesus shall reign where’er
the sun’; ‘Come, let us join our cheerful songs.’
To Dr. Watts, with his delicate health and protracted sicknesses,
songs in a minor key were peculiarly suitable, and some of his most
precious hymns are those which speak of the life to come. He seldom
writes of death as Wesley does, and such a line as