Absent from flesh! O blissful thought!

Absent from flesh! O blissful thought!

Author: Isaac Watts
Tune: REPENTANCE (Perkins)
Published in 13 hymnals

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Representative Text

Absent from flesh! O blissful thought!
What unknown joys this moment brings!
Freed from the mischiefs sin has brought,
From pains, and fears, and all their springs.

Absent from flesh! illustrious day!
Surprising scene! triumphant stroke
That rends the prison of my clay;
And I can feel my fetters broke.

Absent from flesh! then rise, my soul,
Where feet nor wings could never climb,
Beyond the heavens, where planets roll,
Measuring the cares and joys of time.

I go where God and glory shine,
His presence makes eternal day:
My all that's mortal I resign,
For angels wait and point my way.

The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts, 1806

Author: Isaac Watts

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 >

Text Information

First Line: Absent from flesh! O blissful thought!
Author: Isaac Watts
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Absent from flesh, O blissful thought. I. Watts. [Death.] This hymn is part of a poem on “Death and Heaven," in five Lyric Odes, of which it is No. 2:—"The Departing Moment; or Absent from the Body," and is in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. These Odes appeared in Dr.Watts's Reliquiae Juveniles, 1734. This ode is not in extensive use, although found in a few collections in Great Britain, and America. It is given, in a slightly altered form, in the New Congregational Hymn Book, No. 723. The original text is not found in modern collections. [William T. Brooke]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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The Cyber Hymnal #20

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