PREFACE. As the following Hymns are not designed for any one purpose exclusively, they will be found suitable for many-most of them for singing and collective worship, and all of them for devotional reading. None of those in the book of Common Prayer are reprinted here, as they are presumed to be already in the hands of those who will purchase these. A growing demand for more hymns for various uses among our people is proved by the fact that so many thousands of hymnbooks are being purchased by them from private and other sources. And should the Church revise and enlarge its Hymnal, there will still be many hymns which, though properly omitted from such a collection, would properly be retained in one like the present. This work has had the benefit of revision by a number of persons reputed to be of most skill in this particular line; but in the general, not much regard has been had to modern criticisms upon this kind of devotional literature-criticisms which would scarcely leave us fifty hymns in the language having any other merit than mere faultlessness. Our Christian people in general, whether with or without literary culture, have a different standard both of taste and judgment, partly from early and hallowed associations, and partly from a deliberate preference for spirit and effectiveness over mere poetical proprieties, where the last can not be had without sacrificing the first. That many hymns might be made better is very conceivable; and so of numerous translations of the Holy Scriptures; but there is a general and just aversion to having this devotional literature given up to endless change, according to the ever-changing tastes of compilers, whether acting in committees or as individuals. The changes in this work are restorations, or the originals have in general been copied, instead of versions. The aim has of course been to exclude hymns which have no merit, either literary or religious, and to include those containing the most condensed and forceful expression of Christian doctrine and Christian feeling. Such hymns, in their effects upon the soul, surpass all other human writings, having a felicity of application, and a depth and concentration of meaning, which constitute the nearest approach to the Holy Scriptures. |