Evangelical hymns

Evangelical hymns

ISAAC WATTS PSALMS AND HYMNS (1729)Honor to magistrates; or, Government from God.Eternal Sovereign of the sky,

And Lord of all below;

We mortals to thy majesty

Our first obedience owe.

Our souls adore thy throne supreme,

And bless thy providence,

For magistrates of meaner name,

Our glory and defence.

[The crowns of British princes shine

With rays above the rest,

Where laws and liberties combine

To make the nation blest.]

Kingdoms on firm foundations stand,

While virtue finds reward;

And sinners perish from the land

By justice and the sword.

Let Caesar's due be ever paid

To Caesar and his throne;

But consciences and souls were made

To be the Lord's alone.

PSALM 115

To the tune of the 50th Psalm.

Popish idolatry reproved.

A Psalm for the Fifth of November.Not to our names, thou only just and true,

Not to our worthless names is glory due;

Thy power and grace, thy truth and justice, claim

Immortal honors to thy sovereign name:

Shine through the earth from heav'n, thy blest abode

Nor let the heathens say, "And where's your God?"

Heav'n is thine higher court, there stands thy throne,

And through the lower worlds thy will is done;

Our God framed all this earth, these heav'ns he spread;

But fools adore the gods their hands have made:

The kneeling crowd, with looks devout, behold

Their silver saviors, and their saints of gold.

[Vain are those artful shapes of eyes and ears;

The molten image neither sees nor hears;

Their hands are helpless, nor their feet can move,

They have no speech, nor thought, nor power, nor love;

Yet sottish mortals make their long complaints

To their deaf idols and their moveless saints.

The rich have statues well adorned with gold;

The poor, content with gods of coarser mould,

With tools of iron carve the senseless stock,

Lopped from a tree, or broken from a rock;

People and priest drive on the solemn trade,

And trust the gods that saws and hammers made.]

Be heav'n and earth amazed! 'Tis hard to say

Which is more stupid, or their gods or they:

O Isr'el, trust the Lord; he hears and sees,

He knows thy sorrows and restores thy peace;

His worship does a thousand comforts yield,

He is thy help, and he thy heav'nly shield.

O Britain, trust the Lord: thy foes in vain

Attempt thy ruin, and oppose his reign;

Had they prevailed, darkness had closed our days,

And death and silence had forbid his praise:

But we are saved, and live; let songs arise,

And Britain bless the God that built the skies.

[From Raphael Samuel, ed., Patriotism. The Making and Unmaking of British National Identity, Routledge, London and New York, 1989][19th century]Loud let the Gospel trumpet blow

And call the nations from afar!

Let all the isles their Saviour know,

And earths remotest ends draw near.

Let Babylons proud altars shake,

And light invade her darkest gloom;

The yoke of iron bondage brake;

The yoke of Satan and of Rome.

With gentle beams on Britain shine

And bless her rulers and her priests;

And by thy energy divine,

Let sacred love inspire their breasts.

[Sunday School hymn; mid-19th century]Tis to thy sovereign grace I oweThat I was born on British ground

Where streams of heavenly mercy flow

And words of sweet salvation sound.

I would not change my native land

For rich Peru with all her gold;

A nobler prize lies in my hand

Than East and Western Indies hold.

[May 1848 Reverend Hugh Stowell, rector of Christ Church, Salford exhortation to the members of the Protestant Association]Do not trace to Ireland that which should be traced to the shore of the Tiber. Rememeber that you do a great injustice to Ireland if you set down her crime, her misery, her degradation, her ingratitude, her restlessness, her perpetual beggary and woe, to the people to the country to the blood, or to anything or everything but Popery Popery Popery.