The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts #BondBooks

The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts is much more than a biography.  Not only do we learn about Watts and his life, but we also learn and deeply contemplate the truths contained in his best loved hymns.  Bond slows us down to read carefully and meditate on Watts' theology and poetry.  We stop and pause as each line displays some glorious truth which Bond expounds and explains further.  We discover the background circumstances, the controversies of the day and more importantly the true religion of the hymnwriter.

Perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned from Watts' poetry is his understanding of how we read and interpret all of Scripture; Watts, like Spurgeon and the best preachers of the past and present, made a beeline for the cross, and so must we.

This is a profitable read and a must for any lover of Watts' hymns.  For those who are not familiar with his hymns, may this book serve as a taster to whet the appetite.

As we flounder about in the "liturgical fidget" of the contemporary church, Watts can provide both the theological and liturgical ballast Christian worship so desperately needs. And he can give us an emotional rudder, a means of steering the passions in worship by objective propositional truth feelingly delivered.

Lorna
The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts by Douglas Bond, Published by Reformation Trust, £12.99, hardback.

Spurgeon's Sorrows

Zack Eswine has woven together C H Spurgeon's personal experience and words on depression to produce a sympathetic 'handwritten note of one who wishes you well', rather than 'an exhaustive word or prosaic treatise.' Here are some quotes:-

The Road to sorrow has been well trodden, it is the regular sheep track to heaven, and all the flock of God have had to pass along it.

Personally, I also bear witness that it has been to me, in seasons of great pain, superlatively comfortable to know that in every pang which racks his people the Lord Jesus has a fellow-feeling. We are not alone, for one like unto the Son of man walks the furnace with us.

It might puzzle us to tell why Elijah should get under a juniper bush, but when we get under the juniper ourselves, we are glad to recall the fact that Elijah once sat there.

I am certain that I have seen more in the dark than ever I saw in the light - more stars, most certainly - more things in heaven if fewer things on earth. The anvil, the fire, and the hammer, are the making of us; we do not get fashioned much by anything else.

There is much more here that is helpful for sufferers and caregivers. Some of it enters into general Christian experience; some of it reaches to the exceptional.
Newly published by Christian Focus Publications. £6.99 p/b.
Jeremy