Up to the fields where angels lie, And living waters gently roll, Pain would my thoughts leap out and fly, But sin hangs heavy on my soul. Thy wondrous blood, dear dying Christ, Can make this load of guilt remove, And Thou canst hear me where Thou flyest, On Thy kind wings, celestial Dove! Or, Descend from heaven, immortal Dove, Stoop down and take us on Thy wings, And mount and hear us far above The reach of these inferior things. Or the hymn commencing Oh the delights! the heavenly joys! Or that, Now to the Lord a noble song! Watts, we have said, has suffered in many ways. No hymns, we will be bound to say, in our language have suffered so much from garbling and mangling; many of them have passed through a perfect martyrdom of maltreatment. Dr. Kennedy, of Shrewsbury, in his “Hymnologia Christiana,” will not admit “When I can read my title clear” to be a hymn, because it is gravely wrong in doctrine; and “There is a land of pure delight” is not admitted, because it is seriously faulty in style. But if an impartial reader should desire to sum up the great merits of Watts, it will perhaps be found that there is no doctrine of the great Christian creed and no great Christian emotion which does not find happy and frequently most faultless expression. His hymns of _Praise to God_, are frequently among the most noble in our language; for instance: Sing to the Lord who built the skies, The Lord that reared this stately frame; Let all the nation sound His praise, And lands unknown repeat His name. He formed the seas, He formed the hills, Made every drop, and every dust, Nature and time, with all her wheels, And pushed them into motion first. Now from His high imperial throne He looks far down upon the spheres; He bids the shining orbs roll on, And round He turns the hasty years. Thus shall this moving engine last Till all His saints are gathered in, Then for the trumpet’s dreadful blast, To shake it all to dust again! Yet, when the sound shall tear the skies, And lightning burn the globe below, Saints, you may lift your joyful eyes, There’s a new heaven and earth for you. He was fond of singing _the uncreated glories of the Son of God_, His official and mediatorial Majesty, as in that complete and glowing hymn, Join all the glorious names. Or, Go worship at Immanuel’s feet. He had to vindicate himself during his life for the use of doxologies, or hymns of _praise to the Holy Spirit_, as in Eternal Spirit, we confess And sing the wonders of Thy grace. Or the invocation, Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove!