ssed a discriminating taste in poetry. "Scandalous
doggerel" was the term applied by Samuel Wesley, father of the famous
Wesley brothers, to the versified Psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins, who
had published the most popular psalm-book of the day.

When young Watts ventured to voice his displeasure over the psalm-singing
in his father's church in Southampton, one of the church officers
retorted: "Give us something better, young man." Although he was only
eighteen years old at the time, he accepted the challenge and wrote his
first hymn, which was sung at the following Sunday evening services. The
first stanza seems prophetic of his future career:

Behold the glories of the Lamb
Amidst His Father's throne;
Prepare new honors for His Name,
And songs before unknown.

The hymn met with such favorable reception that the youthful poet was
encouraged to write others, and within the next two years he produced
nearly all of the 210 hymns that constituted his famous collection,
"Hymns and Spiritual Songs," published in 1707. This was the first real
hymn-book in the English language.

Twelve years later he published his "Psalms of David," a metrical version
of the Psalter, but, as he himself stated, rendered "in the language of
the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and worship."
Indeed, the Psalms were given such a distinctively Christian flavor that
their Old Testament origin is often overlooked. Witness, for example, the
opening lines of his rendition of the Seventy-second Psalm:

Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
Does his successive journeys run.

In addition to being a preacher and a poet, Watts was an ardent student
of theology and philosophy, and wrote several notable books. Always frail
in health from childhood, his intense studies finally resulted in
completely shattering his constitution, and he was compelled to give up
his parish.

During this period of physical distress, the stricken poet was invited to
become a guest for a week in the home of Sir Thomas Abney, an intimate
friend and admirer. The friendship continued to grow, and inasmuch as
Watts did not improve in health, he was urged to remain. He finally so
endeared himself to the Abney family that they refused to let him go, and
he who had come to spend a week remained for the rest of his
life--thirty-six years!

The great hymnist died on November 25, 1748, and was buried at Bunhill
Fields, London, near the grav