Nature with open volume stands

Nature with open volume stands. Isaac Watts* (1674-1748). This hymn appeared in Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707), Book III, ‘Prepared for the holy Ordinance of the Lord’s Supper’, with the title, ‘Christ crucify’d; the Wisdom and Power of God.’ That title refers, though it is not stated, to 1 Corinthians 1: 24. Watts uses the argument from the book of nature, the liber naturae, in which all that is made displays God’s worthiness. But, as the Companion to Rejoice and Sing (1999) expresses it, ‘in the Cross of Christ, even more wonder and glory is revealed’. This text does not go quite as far as ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’* in its declaration that ‘all the globe is dead to me’, but...