Dr Paul Allen

Cover of Hymns and Spiritual Songs It was a daring move when, in 1707, Isaac Watts published his first book of hymns . At that time it was the practice of almost every congregation of the Church of England to sing only Old Testament psalms in their public worship. However, Watts had grown to dislike this because it restricted the Christian from being able to explicitly celebrate in song all those aspects of the gospel that are fulfilled and illuminated in the New Testament . In the preface to Hymns and Spiritual Songs , Watts addresses the worship situation of his time and offers a defense for writing and publishing new music. Many Ministers and many private Christians have long groaned under this Inconvenience, and have wished rather than attempted a Reformation: At their importunate and repeated Requests I have for some Years past devoted many Hours of leisure to this Service. Far be it from my Thoughts to lay aside the Psalms of David in public Worship; few can pretend so gr

Image via Wikipedia "But we see Jesus , who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death , crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." ( Hebrews 2:9-10 )   Christ is referred to in this passage as the captain of our salvation. The word translated captain implies one who is first in line, the beginning, or the originator. So Christ is discovered to be the first in line of an endless procession of the saints of all ages resurrected from the grave and marching to the ultimate realization of their salvation. He is truly "the first born among many brethren" ( Romans 8:29 ). "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept" ( 1 Corinthians 15:20 ).   The word finds usage only three