1 Let Pharisees of high esteem
Their faith and zeal declare:
All their religion is a dream,
If love be wanting there.
2 Love suffers long with patient eye,
Nor is provok'd in haste;
She lets the present inj'ry die,
And long forgets the past.
3 Malice and rage, those fires of hell,
She quenches with her tongue;
Hopes and believes and thinks no ill,
Tho' she endure the wrong.
4 She ne'er desires nor seeks to know
The scandals of the time;
Nor looks with pride on those below,
Nor envies those that climb.
5 She lays her own advantage by,
To seek her neighbor's good;
So God's own Son came down to die,
And save us by his blood.
6 Love is the grace that keeps her pow'r
In all the realms above;
There faith and hope are known no more,
But saints forever love.
Source: A Collection of Hymns and Prayers, for Public and Private Worship #277
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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