Begin, my tongue, some heavenly theme

Full Text

[Begin, my tongue, some heavenly theme,
And speak some boundless thing;
The mighty works, or mightier name,
Of our eternal King.

Tell of his wondrous faithfulness,
And sound his power abroad;
Sing the sweet promise of his grace,
And the performing God.

Proclaim "salvation from the Lord
For wretched, dying men;"
His hand has writ the sacred word
With an immortal pen.

Engraved as in eternal brass
The mighty promise shines;
Nor can the powers of darkness 'rase
Those everlasting lines.]

[He that can dash whole worlds to death,
And make them when he please,
He speaks, and that almighty breath
Fulfills his great decrees.

His very word of grace is strong
As that which built the skies,
The voice that rolls the stars along
Speaks all the promises.

He said, "Let the wide heaven be spread,"
And heaven was stretched abroad:
"Abram, I'll be thy God," he said,
And he was Abram's God.

O might I hear thine heavenly tongue
But whisper, "Thou art mine!"
Those gentle words should raise my song
To notes almost divine.

How would my leaping heart rejoice,
And think my heaven secure!
I trust the all-creating voice,
And faith desires no more.]

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 >

Notes

Begin, my tongue [soul], some heavenly theme. I. Watts. [Faithfulness of God.] First published in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707 (2nd edition, 1709, Book ii., No. 169), in 9 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "The faithfulness of God in His promises." In 1776, Toplady included it, in an altered and abbreviated form, in his Psalms and Hymns, No. 388, as "Begin, my soul, some heavenly theme." This form of the hymn has been repeated in many collections, sometimes verbatim from Toplady, and again, with further alterations, as in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1830, and revised edition, 1875. Its use in America, usually abbreviated, is much more extensive than in Great Britain.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

MANOAH

MANOAH was first published in Henry W. Greatorex's Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (1851). This anthology (later editions had alternate titles) contained one of the best tune collections of its era and included thirty-seven original compositions and arrangements by compiler Greatorex as well as m…

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