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PREFACE.

suitable for public worship. To this end hymns from all available sources," Ancient" as well as" Modern," have been freely chosen. The true hymnist, whether Roman Catholic, Anglican, Puritan, Methodist, Moravian, or Uni­tarian, becomes oblivious of his own particular views, and he thus wins the honour of enriching the Psalmody of the Universal Church, which is becoming more and more eclectic in its tastes and catholic in its sympathies. This Selection would have been much more limited if the opinions and wishes of persons of the highest and most cultivated taste" had been chiefly studied, but the object has been " to form a collection which shall best satisfy the present requirements of our Church." vehicle for the expression of rigorous and exact theological A hymn is not the best views, but it is often the means of conserving the highest truths in all their divine beauty and completeness. The reader who remembers under whose auspices this book is issued, will not expect to find therein any theological novelties and subtleties, but what he has a right to expect he will find, viz., fidelity to New Testament teaching, and due prominence given to the cardinal doctrines of our holy Christianity. Some of the most important sections are fuller and more complete than in any other book with which the Compilers are acquainted, and to these sections no further reference need be made. But it has been thought that the opening by the" Bible Christians" of a mission to the heathen, demanded that the Missionary Section should be made, rich as it was before, richer and fuller; that the claims of the children, constituting, as they do, so large a part of our congregations, must be at least partially recognised; that ample provision should be made for what in many of our churches is fast becoming a usage, viz., the monthly celebration of the Lord's Supper; also for revival and evangelistic meetings, as the com­munity originated in a revival and has been nourished and strengthened by revivals throughout its history; and that, considering the attitude the Denomination has always occupied on the question, a Temperance Section should be included, even though it might be regarded as a novelty, and in some quarters viewed with disfavour. Fortunately, it has also been found possible to introduce quite a number of suitable hymns for Harvest Thanksgiving services, the holding of which is now so general.

The mission of Methodism, to" spread Scriptural holi­ness through the land," receives an incidental but strong confirmation in the fact that while some of Charles Wesley's