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another in good will, heartily and lovingly embracing; so that those who understand a little, and are hereby moved, have to marvel as thinking there is nought in all the world rarer than such a song with many voices." Much attention may well be bestowed in order to attain such a harmony. But tunes as well as words should be simple. Ostentation in preaching, praying, or singing praise, must be offensive to God. When a choir sings some difficult and elaborate harmony to please the congregation, instead of the congregation uttering its heartfelt praise to God, such singing is amusement rather than worship, and is better fitted for a theatre than for the house of prayer. But tunes which are grave, simple, melodious, adapted to the hymns, and not too many to become familiar to the congregation, sung with a rich harmony of many voices, aid religious impressions. And this is the chief end to be sought: for an assembly of Christians singing their hymns of praise or prayer, of confession or of exhortation, should be sincere, thoughtful, earnest; and above all things should "Sing with grace in their hearts to the Lord," COL. iii. 16.

For his unspeakable goodness manifested towards us in nature, providence, and redemption, we owe to God supreme affection, and constant thanks, MATT. Xxxii. 37. PSALM 1. 23.-cxlviii. 11-13. PHIL. iv. 6. 1 THESS. v. 18. All those therefore who are redeemed, regenerated, and saved, should in their hymns of praise, "Sing and make melody in their hearts to the Lord," EPH. V. 19.

In those hymns, which, like so many of the Psalms

of David, have the form of prayer, the members of a church who sing them heartily may experience the blessings promised to united prayer, MATT. xviii. 19. The members of a Church ought to be real Christians, ACTS ii. 47. ROM. i. 7. EPH. i. 1. 1 THESS. i. 1-10. &c., &c. They should rejoice in their salvation, ROM. V. 1. PHIL. iv. 4. 1 PETER i. 1-9; and their hymns should express this fact. When on the contrary churches use hymns in which they ask for regeneration and conversion, as blessings not yet attained, they check their growth in grace, hinder the conversion of sinners, and throw doubt upon the efficacy of prayer. They check their growth in grace; for by employing through successive years such hymns, they lead to the inference that they must be expected to continue in a state in which their regeneration is doubtful, and in which it is necessary for them still to pray that they may be regenerated. They prevent the conversion of sinners: for an irreligious person who hears the most religious members of the congregation still praying to be regenerated, must conclude, that if he remains unregenerate, he is only like the best persons round him; and that it is neither very criminal nor very dangerous to remain in that condition. And they thus throw doubt upon the efficacy of prayer. For if they have through years prayed for regeneration, and must still pray for it, their prayers have been unanswered. and will therefore probably continue to be so. These hymns have been therefore selected for believers; and assume the faith and the salvation of those who use them. A church hymn book should be a collection of hymns to be sung

not by unbelievers but believers, not by the unconverted but by the converted, not by the lost but by the saved.

If unconverted persons feel that they cannot sing many of these hymns, the consciousness of their incapacity should lead them to seek instant and entire conversion, Acтs ii. 38.-iii. 19.-xvii. 30, &c., &c.

On these principles those hymns which are prayers for conversion, are prayers by members of the church, not for their own conversion, but for the conversion of the unregenerate in the congregation. Which is the best arrangement; for when irreligious persons sing hymns which invoke the aid of the Holy Spirit, as a matter of course, because these hymns occur in public worship, they are little likely to sing them from the heart, or they would not remain careless and worldly: and insincerity has a hardening tendency. But when a number of believers earnestly and with a hearty desire for the salvation of sinners, sing united prayers for their conversion, this is well adapted to awaken their consciences, and to secure the blessings which are thus asked. 1 TIMOTHY ii. 1. MATT. Xviii. 19.

In making this collection I have availed myself of hymns or amendments made by living authors to whom express my thanks.

I

May God be pleased to render this book a blessing to those who use it, and an instrument for promoting his own glory through Jesus Christ.

London, March 21, 1853.

B. W. NOEL,

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