Isaac Watts
1674-1748 18th century
Turning frailty into song, patient creativity under long confinement, a gift for putting complex faith into words ordinary people could sing.
Who was Isaac Watts?
Born in 1674 into a family that had already paid for its faith (his father was jailed for dissenting from the Church of England), young Isaac grew up frail, often ill, and endlessly curious about words. Dissatisfied with the flat psalm-singing of his church, he began writing his own hymns as a teenager, eventually producing hundreds that reshaped English congregational song. Chronic illness confined him for long stretches, but friends took him in and he kept writing anyway, turning private pain into public praise.
In their own words
When I survey the wondrous cross, my richest gain I count but loss.