The glitterance of Christ.[26]
Even so profuse a hymn-writer as Watts feels that there are times when it is best to ‘leave untold’ what the heart most desires to tell:
A solemn reverence checks our songs,
And praise sits silent on our tongues.
It is a less sublime, but not less acceptable, form of worship which attempts that which yet it knows to be impossible. Praise must be heard in Zion lest if men hold their peace the very stones should cry out. Nor is it right that awe should silence love. We worship the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, yet even so we praise Him who ‘like as a Father pitieth His children’; and when we sing praise to Christ as God, we remember that He called His disciples not servants, but friends.
Dr. Watts utters the thought of many hearts in one of his finest hymns—
Join all the glorious names
Of wisdom, love, and power,
That ever mortals knew,
That angels ever bore;