Remember this wonderful story from the home page of Revivie 1775?
In 1843, 91-year-old Capt. Levi Preston was asked by a young historian why he had fought in the American Revolution. Was it the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, perhaps the treatises of John Locke? “No, sirree,” the captain countered. He had not seen any stamps, sipped any tea, or read anything other than the Bible, the catechism, and Watts’s Psalms. “What we meant in going for those Redcoats was this: we always had been free, and we meant to be always free. They didn’t mean we should.”
I thought you might enjoy hearing more about Watt's Psalms.
Isaac Watts was born in England in 1674 and died in 1748. He was a popular hymn writer, considering hymns a tool for evangelization. He was a nonconformist and thus, was not allowed to attend Anglican universities Oxford or Cambridge.
He was extremely prolific not just in hymn writing but other writings as well.
But it's his hymns that the people of New England knew him for most.
Not only did they use Watts Psalms in their meeting house, but also in their homes.
Next time you open a hymnal in church – if you go to a church that still uses hymnals, watch for Isaac Watts.
And when you sing "When I survey the wondrous cross," know that through the ages, you'll be touching Revolutionary times.