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PREFACE.

offer the following suggestions to those of his brethren who may be disposed to introduce his volume into their Churches. 1. Let the tunes which are well known, and of these there is a considerable number, first be selected and adhered to. By this means deeply rooted predilections would not receive too vehement a shock, a taste for a pure style of psalmody would be formed, and this would pave the way for the use of all the rest. 2. As the service of the domestic altar, to be complete, should have the family Hymn, as well as the family lesson and the family prayer, the heads of families may be encouraged to use at morn­ing and evening prayer, during the week, the Hymns and Tunes which are appointed in the Tabular Index for the following Sunday. The children and servants of the household will thus become familiarized to good Psalm- tunes, and be qualified to sing them with precision, earnestness, and spirit. Domestic psalmody will ever be found to be the best preparation for con­gregational psalmody. 3. The same plan may be adopted in the National Schools. The tunes which are appointed for the ensuing Sabbath can be used at the opening and close of the school each day: and to this may be superadded a practice of the whole school for one hour at least every week, when the melodies can be taught by the teacher from the black board. The true syllabic Psalm- tune is the only one children can sing with correctness, and they catch it with re­markable facility. 4. If practicable, let the congrega­tion be invited and urged to assemble every week for practice. This method is now extensively adopted by many congregations, both in and out of the Church, and with the happiest effects. These recommendations, systematically and energetically carried out, would soon, the Compiler believes, raise the psalmody of our Church to the high and palmy condition of its most flourishing period.

I now commit the book to the blessing of God and the kind consideration of the Church, and I commit it in the degree that it is likely to subserve the glory of the one and the benefit of the other. I deeply lament the