Some good hymnals use this tune as the setting for Phillips Brooks’ popular Christmas carol, “O little town of Bethlehem.”
291. The heavens declare Thy glory, Lord
Isaac Watts, 1674-1748
Here is an unusual rendering of Psalm 19, which Watts entitled, “The Books of Nature and of Scripture.” In the Psalm itself we find the Book of Nature in the first half and the Book of Scripture in the second half of the psalm. Instead of following this order, Watts sets the one over in couplets against the other, so that the first two lines of each stanza have to do with nature, the last two with Scripture.
For comments on Isaac Watts, see [Hymn 11].
MUSIC. UXBRIDGE. This tune is by the American composer and teacher of music, Lowell Mason. The psalm tune “Burford” ([228]) is also named “Uxbridge” in some books.
For comments on Mason see [Hymn 12].
292. Lord, Thy word abideth
Henry W. Baker, 1821-77
A hymn on the Scriptures, written for Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1861.