When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Isaac Watts, a young Independent minister in London, complained to his father that congregational psalm-singing was joyless; his father told him to write something better. He did — some six hundred hymns — and effectively invented the English hymn. When I Survey, published in 1707 for use at the Lord's Supper, is his masterpiece and arguably the greatest hymn in the language.

Its method is contemplation: survey the cross slowly, and watch every human boast die of embarrassment. My richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride. The third stanza dares the Bible's strangest paint palette — sorrow and love flow mingled down — and asks the question every gospel preacher has borrowed since: did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?

The final stanza completes the transaction: were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. Charles Wesley — who wrote over six thousand hymns himself — reportedly said he would have given them all to have written this one.