ΤΟ THE HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND HENRY, LORD BISHOP OF LICHFIELD AND COVENTRY, THIS SELECTION OF PSALMS AND HYMNS IS, WITH HIS LORDSHIP'S PERMISSION, INSCRIBED, BY HIS MOST OBLIGED AND OBEDIENT SERVANTS, EDWARD DAVIES, JOHN A. BAXTER. PREFACE. THE Editors of this selection embrace the opportunity afforded by the call for a Second Edition to make such improvements as experience and mature consideration have suggested. Twelve additional Psalms have been introduced, and several Hymns which have not been found applicable to Public Worship have been replaced by others of acknowledged merit and less questionable utility. The whole volume has undergone a careful revision, and numerous minor emendations have in consequence been adopted. On this point the Editors have been less scrupulous than formerly. They have been led to consider these compositions in the light in which, they doubt not, the authors would wish them to be considered, as the property of the Christian Church, and they have not hesitated occasionally to exchange an objectionable expression for one more consonant with correct taste. This liberty has, however, been sparingly exercised, and in the substitutions few will be found which have not received the sanction of some higher authority. The Editors invite attention to the arrangement by which the present volume is chiefly distinguished, and which appears to them to render the work as complete as its nature will admit of, embracing as it does, 1st, The best versions of the Psalms which have yet been produced; 2ndly, a series of Hymns adapted to the Festivals of the Church, and other occasions of periodical recurrence; and 3rdly, a collection of Hymns embodying the great truths of Christianity, and applicable to almost all the usual topics of pulpit instruction. In forming and arranging this third division, one object has been to furnish that numerous class, whose reading is necessarily limited, with a compendious outline of Christian Doctrine, Practice, Experience, and Hope. This will account for the insertion of a few in this Part, scarcely admissible in Public Worship, but almost necessary to complete the chain of religious truth which without them would have seemed defective. In order to combine the facility of reference thus obtained with another object of no less importance, viz:-an adaptation to the subjects and order of the Church's Liturgical services, a Table has been constructed pointing out Psalms and Hymns suitable for each Sunday in the year. These will commonly be found to have a reference to the first Lessons, Epistle, or Gospel, for the day; and where no such connection could be discovered, the place is supplied by the most useful Psalms and Hymns of a more general character. Thus a guide is furnished to the minister, and a directory to the clerk in his possible absence for conducting the psalmody of the congregation, and thus every subject of prayer and praise may be introduced into Divine Worship in due proportion, and with a pleasing variety. EDWARD DAVIES, JOHN A. BAXTER. Kingswinford, near Dudley, near Kidderminster August 15th, 1834. N.B. Any Minister of a Parish who may be desirous of obtaining this selection for distribution at a reduced price, is requested to address a line to the Editors, at the Publisher's. |