Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by

WM. CROSBY AND H. P. NICHOLS,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

CAMBRIDGE:

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY

METCALF AND COMPANY,

PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.

PREFACE.

THE following Collection of Hymns has been compiled by a Committee of the Cheshire Pastoral Association. The work was undertaken to meet the wants of several societies within its own limits, and may not, therefore, have a very extended circulation beyond them; for many compilations already engage public attention and patronage. Our object has been to make a selection embracing a large number and variety of hymns, adapted to all the purposes of public and private worship, and one which at the same time might be furnished at a low price.

We have sought to give it a lyrical character, and thus adapt it to the choir as well as to the pulpit. In pursuance of this idea, a greater variety of metres than usual has been introduced. By selecting also a large amount of introductory and closing hymns for worship, and oy paying special regard to the Christian ordinances, to funeral and mourning occasions, to social and domestic worship, and to philanthropic, national, annual, and missionary celebrations, we have endeavoured to provide for wants which have not hither