PREFACE.

THIS book of Common Praise will be found both comprehensive and exclusive. It contains a large number of the best classical and popular compositions, expressing the spiritual teaching of the Reformed Church of England. Whatever

was not in accordance with this has been excluded.

In compiling it the Editors have set before themselves, as a model, the Book of Common Prayer. They have followed, as closely as possible, the order of sacred thought with which the Church has become familiar, and have borne in mind that the whole scope and tendency of our Liturgy is to raise our minds to a holy and

heavenly state, and build us up, upon our Lord Jesus Christ, as the only foundation of a sinner's hope.

"It is one of the highest excellences of our Liturgy that it is calculated to make us wise, intelligent, and sober Christians. It affects and inspires a meek, humble, sober piety, equally remote from the coldness of the formalist, the self-importance of the dogmatist, and the unhallowed fervour of the enthusiast. A tender seriousness, a meek devotion, and a humble joy are the qualities it was intended to produce." *

The Compilers have earnestly desired that these pages should exhibit the same "spirituality and purity," the same "fulness and suitableness," the same "moderation and candour" the Liturgy of the Church of England.

* Simeon on the Liturgy, p. 67, Ed. 1812.

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The book is the result of the work of several years, and of a widely extended inquiry. The most opposite advice has been offered to the Compilers. Some have advocated a book containing 1,200 hymns; others urged the selection of the best 300. It is the effort to accomplish the latter object, which has led to the multiplication of books; in all of which, from the necessity of the case, very many of the best hymns have found no place.

The Compilers feel confident that, in the following pages, every parish will find nearly all its favourite 300; whilst arrangements may be made to print any parochial appendix, if

desired.

Of the valuable and beautiful hymns extant, some few will be found wanting. Of these some

have, no doubt, escaped notice. For the inser

tion of a few others, it has been found impossible

to obtain permission.

The Compilers have sought to meet the varied requirements of congregations in town and country, and of different stages in Christian life,

A highly cultivated taste might, perhaps, reject some of the compositions included in the following pages, but the associations and sentiments connected with the simple strains, which have grown familiar by use, deserve the respect of Christian love.

A few hymns have been included unsuitable for public worship, but calculated to elevate the pious mind, and fitted to give expression to the holy aspirations of the closet and the family.

Thus the book will be, it is hoped, a book for the Home as well as the Church, a book containing no stanzas which faithful Churchmen would