THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 49
hymns prior to the time when Watts made an era in the history of the hymn- writing art."
" Now, from the altar of our hearts." (No. 986.)
This is one of Mason s " Songs of Praise." It is entitled "A Song of Praise for the Evening." A stanza of eight lines is omitted. The stanza omitted is the quaintest and most Herhert- like, beginning
" Man s life s a book of history, The leaves therof are days, The letters mercies closely joined, The title is Thy praise."
David Creamer, in his " Methodist Hymnology," 1848, says of this hymn :
" Excepting the third verse, this certainly is one of the hest specimens of sacred devotional poetry in the English language, whether regard he had to the thoughts contained in it, or to the manner of their expression. The poem has not the polish of a Pope, nor the elegance of a Wesley, both of whom our author preceded : but its diction is far before the prevailing style of the age ; its sentiments are lofty, original, and uncommon ; and the poem ends with a perfect epigram. The volume from which it was taken evidently furnished Watts and Wesley with some of their best thoughts ; while in the third stanza of the above hymn is found the germ from which Dr. Franklin extracted the conception of his well-known epitaph upon himself, wherein he compares his body to "the cover of an old book, the contents torn out, and stripped of its lettering and gilding," &c.
John Mason was one of the few earlier hymn-writers to whom Dr. Watts was indebted. The lines
" What shall I render to my God For all His gifts to me ? "
found in one of Watts divine songs, are taken without alteration from one of Mason s " Songs of Praise," which begins with these words.
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