x.v

PREFACE.

can by any means be avoided. Every clergyman can choose as many verses as he likes. The one likes this; the other, that. Again, in altering words I think that great care should be taken. The way hitherto has been to cut, eliminate, alter, change ,­and thus wholly destroy the Hymn as it came forth out of the mind of the author." In this view I per­fectly concur, and accordingly, in the present edition, I have bestowed the greatest pains in revising the text, and, when necessary or desirable, restoring it to its original integrity. This has occasioned the trans­fer of a few Hymns, and amongst others, of Hymn 266( see Hymn 487) and Hymn 230( see Hymn 65), one of the finest of Paul Gerhardt's.

The Psalter, as well as the Hymn- Book, has under gone a thorough revision, and, at the instance of some friends, has been furnished with additional marks, so as to remove every difficulty that may possibly arise in its musical interpretation.

Both editions, large and small, exactly correspond. The additional music which I have felt it necessary to select, has, of course, been submitted to the revision of Mr. Goss.

Some of my brethren have expressed a doubt whether the music can be of any use to the poorer members of their flocks. Experience may, perhaps, be allowed to decide the point. In the Churches where the work is already introduced, so far as I have been given to understand, the poor are as partial to the music as to the Hymns; and even assuming that many of the present generation of adult poor can benefit but little by it, yet their children will. By being familiarized from their infancy, in the Church and in the school, to the sight of a given number of notes, they will gradually acquire the use of them, and so be enabled to take a more intelligent part in the choral praises of the congregation. To this may be added, that the low price at which the small edition is offered, will place it within the reach of the humblest means.

The testimonies I have received, from time to time,