The Sword Of The Lord ~ Dr. Shelton Editor ~ February 16, 2024

Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV)
And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

An Independent Christian Publication, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ; Opposing Modernism (Liberalism), Worldliness and Formalism.

The Amen Corner

“The Bible is a book of faith, a Book of doctrine, a Book of morals, a Book of religion and of special revelation from God.” -Daniel Webster

“After six years given to the impartial investigation of Christianity, as to its truth or falsity, I have come to the deliberate conclusion that Jesus Christ was the Messiah of the Jews, the Saviour of the world and my personal Saviour.” -Lew Wallace

“Jesus shall reign where’re the sun

Doth his successive journeys run;

His kingdom stretch

from shore to shore

Till moons shall wax

and wane no more.”

-Isaac Watts

“All we want in Christ, we shall find in Christ. If we want little, we shall find little. If we want much, we shall find much; but if, in utter helplessness, we cast our all on Christ, He will be to us the whole treasure of God.”

-Henry Benjamin Whipple

“Christianity has not failed. It is simply that nations have failed to try it. There would be no war in a God-directed world.” -Rear Admiral Richard F. Byrd

“He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.” -Benjamin Franklin

“A church membership does not make a Christian any more than owning a piano makes a musician.” -Douglas Meador

“The Christian is like the ripening corn; the riper he grows, the more lowly he bends his head.”

“Christianity can be condensed into four words: admit, submit, commit and transmit.” -Samuel Wilberforce

“If you pray for bread and bring no basket to carry it, you prove the doubting spirit which may be the only hindrance to the boon you ask.” -Dwight L. Moody

“It is never a question with any of us faith or no faith; the question always is, ‘In what or in whom do we put our faith?'”

“The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.” -George Muller

The Sword Of The Lord ~ Dr. Shelton Editor ~ May 27, 2022

Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV)
And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

An Independent Christian Publication, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ; Opposing Modernism (Liberalism), Worldliness and Formalism.

The Amen Corner

I have felt like working three times as hard since I came to understand that my Lord is coming again. – D. L. Moody

Any government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have. – President Gerald Ford

We believe in truth that never alters and never can be altered, but stands immutable as God Himself. – C. H. Spurgeon

I’m standing on the promises, walking in His footsteps, leaning on His everlasting arms and drinking from the fountain that never runs dry. – Bud Robinson

I will not permit any man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. – Booker T. Washington

I warn you that it will go hard with you when the Lord comes to reckon with you if He finds your wealth hoarded up in needless accumulation, instead of being carefully devoted to giving the Gospel to the lost. – A. J. Gordon

Strong drink, the curse of all curses, is a wicked wrecker. It turns gold into dross, mentality into derangement, health into misery, beauty into caricature, honor into shame. You can say nicer things about a rattlesnake than about booze. – Dr. Robert G. Lee

I believe the promises of God enough to venture an eternity on them. – Isaac Watts

Better shun the bait than struggle in the snare. – Dryden

A lie will travel around the world twice while truth is still getting his boots on. – Will Rogers

The Bible is the only Book by which you may know certainly the future; it is the only Book that satisfactorily answers the questions: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?

You don’t have to look like you just fell out of the back end of a hearse to be a Christian. – Billy Sunday

Dr. Oswald J. Smith asked me to come to Toronto for revival. When I got there, he said, “Dr. Rice, you’re not going to have the kind of results here that you had in Dallas and in Waterloo, Iowa and in Chicago. We’re Britishers. This is Canada. Up here we are conservative. We feel things, but we don’t express them. We are slow to act.”

I said, “We have that kind down South too. But we don’t call them conservatives; we call them backsliders.” – Dr. John R. Rice

The Sword Of The Lord ~ Dr. Shelton Editor ~ September 17, 2021

Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV)
And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

An Independent Christian Publication, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ; Opposing Modernism (Liberalism), Worldliness and Formalism.

The Amen Corner

A new convert expressed the confidence he had in Christ, “I feel much better now when I feel bad than I used to feel when I felt good.”

It’s easy to make a mountain out of a molehill – just add a little more dirt.

I am standing on the promises, walking in His footprints, leaning on His everlasting arms and drinking from the fountain that never runs dry. -Bud Robinson

Don’t be squeamish in the pulpit, like the one who read, “Jonah was three days and three nights in – ahem – the society of the fish.” -Charles Spurgeon

To know God, to know Christ, to know God’s Word, to know God’s will and to do God’s work are privileges greater than the grasp of any man’s vocabulary. -Dr. Shelton Smith

There are far too many of us who are willing to do great things for the Lord, but far too few of us who are willing to do the little things. -D. L. Moody

The joy of the Lord will arm us against the assaults of our spiritual enemies and put our mouths out of taste for those pleasures with which the tempter baits his hooks. -Matthew Henry

I would not change my blest estate for all the world calls good or great. -Isaac Watts

The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society, the best book for regulating the temporal concerns of men and the only book that can serve as an infallible guide to future felicity. -Noah Webster

This is not a complaint, but I do struggle a little bit with allergies. I am allergic to pollen, dust and animals that shed. I am also allergic to compromisers, Calvinists and those who tote a bad Bible. -Dr. John Hamblin

If one stockholder becomes a cheat, does that destroy a whole company? If one soldier be a coward, does that condemn the whole army? And yet there are many in this day so unphilosophic, so illogical, so dishonest and so unfair as to denounce the entire church of God because here and there unworthy men belong to it. -T. DeWitt Talmage

There may be something about the Bible you cannot explain, but your ignorance is a sorry excuse for criticizing the Word of God. -Dr. John R. Rice

A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was made. -George Washington

The Story Behind the Christmas Carol… “JOY TO THE WORLD!”

The Story Behind the Christmas Carol… “JOY TO THE WORLD!”
December 02 2017
Written by: Prophecy in the News

“Joy to the World”

One of the most famous of all Christmas Carols, “Joy to the World,” was written by Isaac Watts (1674-1748) and Lowell Mason (1792-1872). The text written by Watts is considered to be one of the most joyous Christmas carols ever written. It is joyous not in the sense of amusement, but in the serious comprehension of what Christ’s nativity means to all men. Isaac Watts has been called the father of English hymnody and the bard (poet) of Southhampton. Watts is often compared to Charles Wesley for his talent as a hymnist and his contributions to hymnody.
Isaac Watts was the oldest of nine children of a Southampton clothier. His father was a Nonconformist, which means he would not accept the established Church of England.

When Isaac was born in 1674, his father was in jail for his approval of Nonconformist thought. Although young Isaac had a great deal of respect for his father’s convictions, he often thought of his mother’s days of nursing her children at the entrance to the jail. The boy Isaac showed his brilliance at a very young age. He learned Latin by age four, Greek at age nine, French at eleven, and Hebrew at thirteen. Many of the well-to-do citizens offered to educate him at Oxford or Cambridge, which would have prepared him for the Anglican ministry. Isaac would have none of it and at age sixteen traveled to London to continue his education at a prominent Nonconformist academy. After graduation in 1694, he spent two years at home where he began his hymn writing.
He became the assistant pastor of one of the city’s leading Nonconformist churches, London’s Mark Lane Independent Church, in 1699. He became the head pastor in 1702. Only one year into his ministry, he began to show symptoms of a psychiatric sickness, an illness that he would have to deal with the rest of his life. Samuel Price came to help Isaac in 1703 and became co-pastor in 1713. His illness continued but his congregation did not want to part with the man who had become very well-known and loved much. He was probably the most celebrated writer of his time. The “Horoe Lyricae” (1706) is what gave him notoriety as a poet, buy it was his hymns that distinguished him. His poetry brought forth the spiritual passion that made hymn singing a deep religious experience. He wrote about sixty theological and philosophical books and about 700 hymns.

His most popular hymns are “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “O God Our Help in Ages Past,” and “Joy to the World!” Matthew Arnold, a nineteenth-century author, said, “’When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’ is the best hymn in the English language.” “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” has been given the title of England’s second national anthem and “Joy to the World” stands at the top of Christmas hymns.
Watts once criticized hymn singing in church when he said, “To see the dull indifference, the negligent and thoughtless air that sits upon the faces of a whole assembly, while the psalm is upon their lips, might even tempt a charitable observer to suspect the fervency of their inward religion.” German Lutherans had been singing hymns for a hundred years. John Calvin wanted his supporters to sing only metrical psalms; English Protestants had followed Calvin’s command. However, young Watts had been complaining about the hymn singing in church since he was eighteen years old. His father grew weary of the complaining and told him, “if you don’t like the hymns we sing then write better ones.” At this point, Isaac shared his hymn “Behold the Glories of the Lamb,” based upon Revelation 5:6-10, with his father:

Behold the glories of the Lamb, Amidst His Father’s throne;
Prepare new honors for His Name, And Songs as yet unknown.

Behold the glories of the Lamb, Amidst His Father’s throne;
Prepare new honors for His Name, And Songs as yet unknown.
The next Sunday morning his father shared the hymn with the church. They liked it so much that Isaac was asked to write another. The legacy was begun and so continued the request for the next 222 Sundays. Watts did not snub the metrical hymns – he just wanted them to be filled with more enthusiasm. Samuel Johnson said, “Watts was the first who taught the Dissenters (Nonconformists) to write and speak like other men, by showing them that elegance might consist with piety.”

In 1705, Watts published his first volume of original hymns and sacred poems. His next hymnal was Hymns and Spiritual Songs and was published in 1707. Many of the Dissenters did not approve of the hymnal. They believed only Psalms and not hymns should be sung in church. This led Watts to adapt the Psalms to Christian worship services. It was called The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament. It was his goal to give the Psalms a New Testament meaning and mode. Watts clarified his method with these words “Where the Psalmist describes religion by the fear of God, I have often joined faith and love to it. Where he speaks of the pardon of sin through the mercies of God, I have added the merits of a Savior. Where he talks of sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God…Where he promises abundance of wealth, honor, and long life, I have changed some of these typical blessings for grace, glory, and life eternal, which are brought to light by the gospel, and promised in the New Testament.”
In the early eighteenth century, Isaac Watts wrote his greatest Christmas hymn “Joy to the World,” a paraphrase of the verse taken from Psalm 98: 4, 8-9 (KJV):

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth;
make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be
joyful together before the Lord; for He cometh to
judge the earth, with righteousness shall He judge
the world, and the people with equity.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth;
make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be
joyful together before the Lord; for He cometh to
judge the earth, with righteousness shall He judge
the world, and the people with equity.

The first stanza proclaims “the Lord is come,” but this is the only verse that is linked with Christmas and the Nativity. The rest of the verses could be sung at anytime of the year. Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, and the manger are not mentioned in the hymn, but who could ever say this carol is not one of the greatest carols we have today?

With Watts’ health failing, he moved to the estate of the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas and Lady Abney, to recuperate. His plans were to stay only a few weeks but spent the next thirty-six years as a guest there.

While he was staying at the Abney estate, he dedicated Divine and Moral Songs for Children (1715) to their children. In 1739, he suffered a stroke, which left him all but bedridden during his final years.
It is interesting to note that Watts never married. His sickness and unpleasant appearance caused his personal life to suffer. He was five feet tall, pale, skinny, and he had an oversized head. All of the pictures of him show him in a large gown with large folds. This is probably an effort by the artists to downplay his less than pleasing appearance. Elizabeth Singer, an avid reader of his book Hymns and Spiritual Songs thought Isaac Watts was her soulmate even though she only knew him through his writings. A meeting was arranged. When she saw his appearance, she refused his marriage proposal. This was as close as he ever came to being married.
When Isaac Watts was dying he said, “I am just waiting to see what God will do with me; it is good to say, what, when, and where God pleases. The business of a Christian is to do the will of God. If God should raise me up again, and use me to save a soul, that will be worth living for. If He has no more service for me, I can say, through grace, I am ready; I could without alarm if God please, lay back my head on my pillow and die this afternoon or night. My sins are all pardoned through the blood of Christ.”

Lowell Mason, composer of “Joy to the World, “was born and raised in Medfield, Massachusetts. As an adult, he worked in a dry goods store and a bank in Savannah, Georgia. His strong interest in music led him to study with Frederick L. Abel and write his own pieces. Later, as music leader at the Independent Presbyterian Church of Savannah, he led the church to set up the first Sunday School for Afro-American children in the United States.
Mason wanted to publish a hymnal using European classical tunes, including those of composers Haydn and Mozart. After many inquiries with publishers, his hymnal was printed in 1822 by the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston. It was a big success. Mason played a large part in the development of American church music, composing over 1,600 hymns. He introduced music into American public schools and was the first noted music educator in the United States.
Mason wanted the European influence of music to continue in America. Many opposed this philosophy because much was already being done as purely American music. This indigenous American music can be seen in the Sacred Harp Singing Schools and the works of William Billings.

In the last part of his life, he was the music director of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. Here he changed American church music from professional choirs and orchestras to congregational singing and organ music.
In 1839, Lowell Mason composed a tune that is forever linked with Watt’s “Joy to the World.” Mason wrote on the manuscript “from Handel.”
Apparently, he was referring to the first four notes of “Lift Up Your Heads” from Handel’s Messiah and the middle section of the carol (“and heaven and nature sing”), which can also be located in Messiah in the introduction of “Comfort Ye My People.”
These two men, Isaac Watts and Lowell Mason, lived one hundred years apart. They were united, however, as both wanted congregational hymn singing to be an integral part of Christian worship. Both of their purposes were successful and today we have the most joyous Christmas carol ever written.

Joy to the world! The Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room,
And heav’n and nature sing,
And heav’n and nature sing,
And heav’n, and heav’n and nature sing.
Joy to the world! The Saviour reigns;
Let all their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The Glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders of His love.
Source: “Songs of Christmas” and the stories behind them – by Tommy and Renee Pierce (Copyright 2008)