Are We Giving the Enemy “Watts”?

Cristopher Knapp

The great Dr. Johnson, of dictionary fame, once said of the greater Dr. Watts that he was a man to be imitated in everything but his nonconformity to the Church of England. This is a very good testimony to have “from them that are without.” It reminds us of the enemies of Daniel, who were compelled to acknowledge: “We shall not find anything against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.” At a charge in the American Revolution, when for want of better wadding the colonials had to ram their flint locks with leaves from old Watts’ hymn books taken from his nearest meeting house, the commanding officer cried, as they approached the enemy: “Now then, give them Watts, boys.” And, fellow soldiers of Jesus Christ, as we daily meet the enemy, let us, in a spiritual or parabolic sense, “give him Watts”; let us meet his accusations false and charges unjust with the testimony of a good conscience, the recoil of a blameless life. This is what Scripture means by the practical, godly life, “known and read of all men.”

C.Knapp

Tender Grass 1915