the other. It was the same with Isaac Watts, who lived a hundred years earlier. Samuel Johnson said of Watts, “Whatever he took in hand, was, by his incessant solicitude for souls, converted to theology.”5 Which I take to mean, in Watts’s case, that everything was brought into relation to God—because he cared about people. Today Johnson would, I believe, say of much contemporary preaching, “Whatever the preacher takes in his hand, is, by his incessant solicitude for relevance, converted to psychology.”
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