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PREFACE.

and sure warrant of faith), and also might assist ministers in appointing hymns adapted to their discourses.

of

5.- To give full tables and indexes of the first lines, the Scriptures, and the subjects; with the table of those which might be taken for every Sunday and holy day in the service of the Church of England through the year, and a table to assist in choosing appropriate tunes. In the table of first lines the name original author, where known, has been inserted. Alterations in the hymns were occasionally necessary, either to correct an unscriptural or a harsh expression. Many have been made that an impression not according to the general bearing of evangelical truth might not be left on the mind; an impression calculated to lead either to self- complacency, or to confidence in a method of salvation not wholly of grace, or to needless despondency.

Considerable hesitation was felt in giving the names of the authors of the hymns; partly from the desire that the one name of Christ should only be known; partly from the fear that it might be a hindrance to devotional feeling to find a name attached as author to a hymn with which prejudice was either justly or unjustly connected, and partly as altera­tions have been sometimes made in the hymns, which would lead the author to disown them.

But while the name of Jesus is alone to be exalted, he bears the names of his people on his breast, and they are graven on the palms of his hands. It was to the Compiler peculiarly delightful to bring together so many names of the followers of Christ, of varied ages, denominations, powers, and rank, all combined in accomplishing one blessed result, the exalta­tion of the one God and Father of all, the one Lord and Saviour, and the one Spirit, the Comforter, and to furnish the one Church bought with the blood of Christ, with an earthly help to the sweetest earthly, or rather heavenly, employment of the Church here below. The prejudice to which allusion has been made, if just, need not interfere with our profit in the use of a hymn truly valuable in itself; and if unjust, the sooner it is dispelled the better, and may the hymns here given help to dispel all such prejudices.

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FARTHER HYMNS WANTED.- The Church of Christ in this country might yet be greatly enriched by fresh hymns, and the following remarks are added, in hope of calling attention to the increasing the stores of Christian Psalmody. There are those living who, with the Divine blessing, might greatly help to supply our deficiencies. We still want a closer version than we have of the Psalms, bringing out their testimony to the Saviour's trials, conflicts, and triumphs, the temptations and experience of individual Christians, and the warfare and deliverances of the Church and its ultimate glories, the restoration of the Jews, and the blessedness of this to the world in a way calculated to promote edification. There is ample room for enlargement on the various heads under which hymns have been given in this book. God, as our portion, our shield, and exceeding great reward, and his glorious attributes and his manifestations of himself, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, might be much more fully, practically, and experimentally illustrated. Practical duties, on Gospel principles, in the Christian life, have been but little brought before the Church in hymns, though the Scriptures lead to it by the exhortation, teaching, and admonishing one another in