Awake, my zeal, awake, my love. Isaac Watts. [Personal Call to Duty.] This hymn was written by Isaac Watts as a metrical paraphrase designed to accompany his preached sermon on 1 Corinthians 3:22 ("Whether life or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours"). It was first published as an appendix to his collected Sermons on Various Subjects (1721-1724) in 6 stanzas of 8 lines, and was regularly reprinted in subsequent editions of his works.
The hymn functions as an earnest exhortation to Christian diligence and heavenly-mindedness in light of the believer's eternal inheritance. Its public use in congregational worship remained limited compared to Watts's major psalm versions. In William John Hall's Mitre Hymn Book (1836), the text was altered to begin "Awake, our zeal, awake, our love" and condensed into 4 stanzas. However, this altered arrangement likewise failed to gain traction and has almost entirely passed out of modern hymnal collections.
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