Isaac Watts Quotes

In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be past,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.

Let me be dressed fine as I will,
Flies, worms, and flowers, exceed me still.

In works of labour,
or of skill,
I would be busy, too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing so divine
Demands my soul my life my all

The saints in this life have God near them in all their trials, as a Father and Friend, to uphold, to comfort, to sanctify, though they see Him but darkly through a glass, and behold but little of His power and glory.

Once a day....call yourselves to an account what new ideas, what new proposition or truth you have gained, what further confirmation of known truths, and what advances you have made in any part of knowledge.

When I can read my title clear
To mansions in the skies,
I'll bid farewell to every fear,
And wipe my weeping eyes.

Yet, gracious God amidst these storms of nature,
Thine eyes behold a sweet and sacred calm
Reign through the realms of conscience: all within
Lies peaceful and composed. ‘Tis wondrous grace
Keeps off thy terrors from this humble bosom,
Though stained with sins and follies, yet serene
In penitential peace and cheerful hope;
Sprinkled and guarded with atoning blood.
Thy vital smiles amidst this devastation,
Like heavenly sunbeams hid behind the clouds,
Break out in happy moments with bright radiance,
Cleaving the gloom; the fair celestial light
Softens and gilds the horrors of the storm,
And richest cordials to the heart conveys.
O glorious solace of immense distress,
A conscience and a God! A friend at home
And a better Friend on high! This is my Rock
Of firm support, my Shield of sure defence
Against infernal arrows. Rise, my soul,
Put on thy courage: Here’s the living spring
Of joys divinely sweet and ever new,
‘A peaceful conscience and a smiling heaven.’
Weak as my zeal is, yet my zeal is true;
It bears the trying furnace. Love divine
Constrains me; I am thine. Incarnate love
Has seized and holds me in almighty arms:
Here’s my salvation, my eternal hope.
Amidst the wreck of worlds and dying nature,
‘I am the Lord’s, and he forever mine.

When the Eternal bows the skies
To visit earthly things,
With scorn divine he turns his eyes
From towers of haughty kings.

He bids his awful chariot roll
Far downward from the skies,
To visit every humble soul,
With pleasure in his eyes.

Lord, I ascribe it to thy grace,
And not to chance as others do,
That I was born of Christian race,
And not a Heathen, or a Jew.

I have been there, and still would go;
'T is like a little heaven below.

The wise will make their anger cool
At least before 'tis night.

No man is obliged to learn and know every thing; this can neither be sought nor required, for it is utterly impossible; yet all persons are under some obligation to improve their own understanding; otherwise it will be a barren desert, or a forest overgrown with weeds and brambles. Universal ignorance or infinite errors will overspread the mind which is utterly neglected and lies without any cultivation.

And while the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return.

Tis true my form is something odd
But blaming me is blaming God
Could I create myself anew
I would not fail in pleasing you.

If I could reach from pole to pole
Or grasp the ocean with a span
I would be measured by the soul
The mind's the standard of the man.