When I can read my title clear. I. Watts. [Assurance of Faith and Hope.] Appeared in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. It is headed "The Hopes of Heaven our Support under Trials on Earth." Its use in Great Britain and America is very extensive. The text has undergone several alterations at the hands of Bickersteth in his Psalms & Hymns, 1833; Elliott in his Psalms & Hymns, 1835, and others. The most important is Bickersteth's rendering of stanza iv.:—
"There, anchor'd safe, my weary soul
Shall find eternal rest,
Nor storms shall beat, nor billows roll,
Nor fears assail my breast."
It is hard to see that this is an improvement upon Watts's original:—
"There shall I bathe my weary soul
In seas of heavenly rest,
And not a wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast."
The original text of the whole hymn, as in the Hymnal Companion, is that most commonly used Miller (Singers and Songs, 1869, p. 140) points out that the opening lines of the hymn,—
"When I can read my title clear
To mansions in the skies,"
are used by Cowper in his poem on Truth (published in 1782), in his comparison of the lot of "Voltaire and that of the poor and believing cottager, who
”Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true—
A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew:
And in that charter reads with sparkling eyes,
Her title to a treasure in the skies."
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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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