gationalists who had sponsored it were thoroughly dissatisfied. As
an example of the morbid character of Puritan theology, Edward S. Ninde
has called attention to the fact that while Barlow failed to include
Wesley's "Jesus, Lover of my soul" or Watts' "When I survey the wondrous
cross," he did select such a hymn by Watts as "Hark, from the tombs, a
doleful sound," and another beginning with the lines,

My thoughts on awful subjects roll,
Damnation and the dead.

A second attempt to make a complete revision of Watts' "Psalms of David"
was decided upon by the Congregational churches, and this time the task
was entrusted to Timothy Dwight, president of Yale College. Dwight, who
was a grandson of Jonathan Edwards, was born in 1752. He entered Yale at
the age of thirteen and graduated with highest honors in 1769. At the
outbreak of the Revolutionary War he was commissioned a chaplain and
throughout the conflict he wrote songs to enthuse the American troops. In
1795 he was elected president of Yale College, in which position he
served his Alma Mater for twenty years.

Dwight exhibited a spirit of bold independence when he added to the
revised "Psalms" by Watts a collection of two hundred and sixty-three
hymns. Of these hymns, one hundred and sixty-eight were also by Watts,
indicating the hold which that great hymnist retained on the
English-speaking world. Other hymn-writers represented in Dwight's book
included Stennett, Doddridge, Cowper, Newton, Toplady, and Charles
Wesley. Only one of the latter's hymns was chosen, however, and Toplady's
"Rock of Ages" was not included!

Dwight himself wrote thirty-three paraphrases of the Psalms, but they
were so freely rendered that they are properly classified as original
hymns. Among these is his splendid version of the 137th Psalm, "I love
Thy Zion, Lord," which may be regarded as the earliest hymn of American
origin still in common use today. It is usually dated 1800, which is the
year when Dwight's work was published.

Dwight, who will always be remembered as the outstanding figure in the
beginnings of American hymnody, died in 1817. The story of his life is an
inspiring one, illustrating how his heroic qualities conquered despite a
"thorn in the flesh." A chronicler records that "during the greater part
of forty years he was not able to read fifteen minutes in the twenty-four
hours; and often, for days and weeks together, the pain which he endured
in that part of t