In Praise of Great Hymns

On her recent "Poetry Monday" Mrs. D has posted the lyrics to Come Thou Fount of Many Blessings, one that we've both rediscovered lately. The verse I especially love is:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Alister McGrath in Christianity's Dangerous Idea notes that hymn writing has not come easy for all branches of Protestantism. The Puritan Cotton Mather (1663-1728) meant well but came up with the following: (you might want to pull out all the stops on the pipe organ during this stanza)

Ye monsters of the bubbling deep
Your Maker's praises spout;
Up from the sands ye codlings peep,
And wag your tails about.

McGrath notes "It certainly rhymes. But it's not exactly inspirational."

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