His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o'er his body on the tree;
Then am I dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me. (From: Hymns and Psalms, 180, verse 4)
This is a radical hymn. Most people don't realise it is a radical hymn. No space to go into the detail of the whole hymn. It is common for verse 4 to be omitted. Why? I am indebted to John Hull, who interpreted the hymn in a lecture some years ago. Just two points. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross was written around 1707, when the centre of the world's economy was moving from the Netherlands to Britain. Perhaps it should be Great Britain, for this was the year the United Kingdom was founded. The reason the verse is so often omitted, is not as some think the mention of blood (Watts father was a dealer in dye and the image is of crimson dye spreading through a cloth). It is the word globe. We no longer realise how important globes were in Watts' world. They were used to plan trade routes.
Watts could see which way his world was going. Are we able to join with him in the last verse and sacrifice the whole globe for the demands of love?
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