The St. Alban Hymnal is published to meet the needs of the Liberal Catholic Church, and a knowledge of the tenets of that Church is necessary in order to enable the reader to understand the principles which have governed the selection of the hymns, and the manifold alterations which have been made in them. The Liberal Catholic Church allows perfect freedom of opinion to all its members, but it has at the same time a definite doctrine to offer to those who feel themselves able to accept it, though it does not exact adherence to it or to any other dogma as a condition of access to its altars. Its central and paramount teaching is that God is Love and Light, and that in Him there is no darkness at all. Consequently it regards as blasphemous all assertions of hell and damnation, all prayers for salvation by blood, all ignoble cries for mercy, all expressions showing fear or doubt of the Loving Father. It holds that heaven is not a place but a state of consciousness, and that death is not a plunge into a dim unknown, but simply a passage into a higher and beautifully familiar life. All this being so, it will be readily understood that its members find the ordinary hymn somewhat futile, since it is filled with expressions which the enlightened Christian cannot honestly endorse if he pays any attention to the real meaning and implication of the words. Yet many such hymns contain beautiful passages which are endeared to us by old association, and it would be sad if we were debarred from their use. Some such we have had regretfully to abandon; but we have been able by careful alteration to bring many into harmony with our convictions. We heartily apologize to their authors for the liberty thus taken with their compositions; but we feel sure that it will readily be pardoned when |