108. Alas! and did my Savior bleed
Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
A fine hymn of consecration, published by Watts in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707, under the title “Godly Sorrow Arising from the Sufferings of Christ.” Dr. Charles S. Robinson states that “more conversions in Christian biography are credited to this hymn than to any other.” Fanny Crosby, the blind poet, ten of whose lyrics are found in the Hymnary, credits this hymn with a share in her conversion. In telling the story she says that during a revival in the old Thirtieth Street Church, New York, in 1850, several times she sought the Saviour at the altar; but not until one evening, November 20, did the light come. “After a prayer was offered they began to sing the good old consecration hymn, ‘Alas! and did my Saviour bleed,’ and when they had reached the third line of the fourth stanza, ‘Here, Lord, I give myself away,’ my very soul flooded with celestial light.”
For comments on Isaac Watts see [Hymn 11].
MUSIC. MARTYRDOM. The original form of this melody is in common time (4/4). It appeared in triple time in R. A. Smith’s Sacred Music sung in St. George’s Church, Edinburgh, 1825, where it was designated “Old Scottish Melody.” In 1827, it appeared in The Seraph, Selection of Psalms and Hymns, edited by J. Robertson and published at Glasgow. In a footnote to the tune it is stated that “the above tune ‘Fennich,’ or ‘Martyrdom,’ and by some called ‘Drumclog,’ was composed by Hugh Wilson, a native of Fennick.” A legal dispute arose between Smith and Wilson over the ownership of the tune. The evidence was abundant to show that Wilson composed it. It is an effective tune. When it was first sung in St. George’s, Edinburgh, the minister, Dr. Thomson, said, “O man! I could not sing for weeping.”
Hugh Wilson, 1766-1824, the composer of the tune, learned his father’s trade of shoemaking, studied and taught mathematics, and made sun-dials as a hobby. He then held positions of responsibility in certain mills and afterwards became a draftsman. He was interested in Sunday school work and wrote a number of psalm tunes but MARTYRDOM is the only one found in modern hymnals.