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PREFACE.

in prison sang praises to God( Acts xvi. 25). Christians have from the beginning been marked for their attention to this. Pliny describing the customs of Christians about the year 106, tells the Roman Emperor Trajan," They are ac­customed to repeat among themselves a hymn to Christ as to a God." An early Christian writer says," The psalms and the hymns of the brethren, written at the beginning, do set forth the praises of Christ, the Word of God, as God."( Eu­sebius, b. vii. c. 28). Another early writer( Clemens) says, " A good Christian's life is a continual festival, his sacrifices are prayers and praises, reading the Scriptures before meat, and singing psalms and hymns at meat.' St. Jerome tells us that in the place where he lived" you could not go into the fields, but you might hear the ploughman at his hallelujahs, the mower at his hymns, and the vine- dresser singing David's Psalms."

Singing greatly promoted the cause of Reformation. Beza says," When I came into the assembly where they were singing the praises of God, I found myself suddenly inspired with a divine warmth, and strangely affected with love and joy, so that the assembly appeared to me as the gate of heaven, or an entrance into glory."

The increased attention paid to Psalmody is one of those gratifying marks of revived religion, which we trust will in­crease and spread, till not only in every Church, but in every family, both young men and maidens, old men and children, yea, every thing that hath breath praise the Lord.

III. DIRECTIONS FOR SINGING.

To sing with the spirit and with the understanding( 1 Cor. xiv. 15) will be the desire of every real Christian.

The grace of God is here, as in every holy duty, the first and all- essential requisite. To sing with the Spirit, we need the power from on high, grace in the heart, and the present ex­ercise of that grace by the immediate and direct aid of the Holy Spirit, communicating and exciting and stirring up holy affections within( Col. iii. 16, Ephes. v. 18, 19). The sweet­ness of the music may be rather a hindrance than a help, if it engross our minds, or turn them away from the thoughts of prayer and praise. Augustine says," When the tune has moved me more than the subject, I feel guilty."

It is much to be desired that, as far as practicable, the con­gregation should join in the act of singing; those who can sing well doing so aloud( Ps. cviii. 1-3), the or ear is not good, joining in a lower tone, and those unable to sing remaining silent, yet joining in heart and affection.

whose voice

The whole congregation ought to stand up during the singing( 2 Chron. vii. 6, Neh. ix. 5, Isa. vi. 2, 3, Rev. vii. 9, 10, xv. 2-4).

May Augustine's experience of the benefit of singing be re­alized by multitudes in our days." Oh how much have I wept, how exceedingly moved and affected I have been at the hymns, songs, and harmonious voices of the Church. Those voices pierced my ears, thy truth entered my soul, and devout affections were raised within me." And may many a heart in the use of the hymns here gathered together, be enabled to anticipate the songs of the redeemed above, till they at length join that only perfectly happy choir.

EDWARD BICKERSTETH.

Watton Rectory, October, 1841.