xii

PREFACE,

ly to the understanding or to hereditary preposses­sions. It is gratifying to mark the recent efforts for the promotion of pure psalmody; and I hope yet to hear the" common tune" resounding through the lofty aisles of the Cathedral,* uplifted by the worshippers of our parochial Churchest with the grand and con­sonous unity of former days, and animating the ser­vice of every family altar. Above all do I earnestly pray that God may pour the spirit of praise upon our congregations in its richest affluence. This alone, like the incense to the fire of the altar, communicates the sacred odour and distinguishes it from the common element; this alone qualifies for the psalmody of the Church triumphant; and this alone makes the psalmody of earth, however sweet the confluence of sounds, rise an acceptable offering to God." Praise is comely FOR THE UPRIGHT." WILLIAM MERCER.

Leavy Greave, Sheffield, Dec. 10, 1854.

SECOND PREFACE,

It has been suggested to me by individuals whose opinion I felt to be entitled to all deference, that in the previous editions of this Hymn- Book, some of the Church's seasons, and especially that of Lent, were

* Cosin, Bishop of Durham, says," he never forbade singing the metre psalms in the Cathedral, but used to sing them himself with the people at morning prayer." Master Thomas Mace's statement respecting the super­excellency of the style in which psalms were sung by immense congregations in York Minster, in 1644, is well known. The fact also is evident from the title of Ravencroft's volume, from Clifford's collection of works" usually sung in all Cathedrals and Collegiate Choirs."( 1664.)

+" Immediately," says Bishop Jewel, in a letter to Peter Martyr, 1560," not only the Churches in the neighbourhood, but in the towns far distant, began to vie with each other in the same practice. You may now sometimes see at St. Paul's Cross, after the service, 6000 people, old and young, of both sexes, all singing together and praising God."" Three or four thousand singing at a time in a Church of this city is but a trifle," says Roger Ascham, in a letter from Augsburg, dated 14th May, 1551.

+ Hawkins, in his history, mentions that" the time is hardly beyond the reach of some persons living when psalmody was considered a delightful exercise," and that" a passenger on a Sunday evening, from St. Paul's to Aldgate, would have heard the families in most houses in his way occupied in singing psalms.