Saints Gone Before

With a submission for the approval of the Midnight Society, we call this story “Holy Fortitude, or Remedies Against Fear,” a sermon by Isaac Watts. This sermon is number 31 in The Works of Isaac Watts D.D. in Nine Volumes, volume 1, published by Edward Baines in Leeds, England in 1812. You can search that PDF on archive.org if you’d like to read along. Watts lived in the late 17th through mid 18th centuries in Britain. You may already know him as a hymn writer who penned classics like “Joy to the World,” “O God Our Help in Ages Past,” and “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” as well as about 750 other hymns! Though he was also a theologian and the kind of philosopher who focused on the study of logic (even writing multiple books on the subject), this “Godfather of English Hymnody” preached as pastor of Mark Lane Congregational Chapel. Today’s reading is one of his sermons, based primarily on 1 Corinthians 16:13. Come back next time for a sermon by Lemuel Haynes. Suggestions for our next reading? churchhistoryp