In the work of editing, the integrity of every hymn has been scrupulously regarded. Where hymns have been abridged, it has been to enhance their value, by the exclusion of irrelevant, redundant, or infelicitous stanzas, and not for typographical or any other mechanical convenience; when a hymn has been altered, it has been to adopt a form tested and hallowed by Christian usage, or, in rare instances, to correct such infelicities in metre or in expression as would prove serious obstacles in Christian worship. Changes have never been made in order to please the individual taste or the theological opinions of the Editor, or simply to better, in his judgment, an inoffensive expression. From such interference with the words of an author, he has scrupulously refrained. All alterations introduced into this volume intentionally are noted in the Index of Translators and Revisers. The tunes have been selected on the theory that congregations can sing the best chorus music, which may or may not be simple, but must have a certain rhythm and movement that the mind can retain. With very few exceptions, no tune has been admitted that is deemed unsuitable for congregational use; a few are inserted which can be used with good effect by a solo voice, a quartet, or a chorus choir in conjunction with the congregation. It must be remembered, however, that familiarity with, not trivial simplicity of, music is the secret of good congregational singing; and every new tune contained in these pages, to be sung worthily, should first be sung often enough to familiarize the ear with the melody. In endeavoring to make the volume inclusive of the best congregational music at command to-day, the Editor has carefully examined the best work of every school, the German choral, the early and the modern English, the early and the modern American. Adaptations from secular music, he has carefully avoided; adaptations from oratorios he has, with few exceptions, avoided. Among the tunes are more than a score furnished by some of the leading musicians of the United States. In the adaptations of the music to the words, no settings thoroughly familiar to the churches have been discarded without much consideration. An equal regard has been paid to the selection of words for which each tune was originally designed by the composer. Although great care has been expended in uniting each hymn to appropriate music, opportunity is given in many instances to congregations to alter the adaptations of the Editor. Thus, hymn 42 may be sung, if desired, to tune 43; hymn 51 to tune 50; hymn 200 to tune 201; hymn 248 to tune 247. A record of such alternative settings will be found incorporated in the indexes at the back of the volume. To increase congregational participation in church service, there are appended to the Hymnal a few simple Orders of Service, and some Scrip ture selections especially selected and adapted to responsive reading. Liturgies are not made, they grow. Therefore no new liturgies have been constructed for this book; the services suggested have, in the main, been simply abridged and adapted from the Orders of Service most familiar to Congregational worshippers, - that hallowed by long usage in the Protestant Episcopal Church. In connection with these Orders of Service a few simple chants are printed; and the first twenty-four hymns and tunes have been selected with especial reference to use in the opening of service, in the belief that the first act of public worship should be, not an anthem sung to the congregation, but a hymn of prayer and praise sung by the congregation. While the entire preparation of the book, both literary and musical, has been under my general supervision, so that I cannot claim exemption from responsibility for any feature in it, that preparation would have been impossible without the co-operation of Mr. Charles H. Morse, who has assisted me throughout in the selection and adaptation of the tunes, and has undertaken the whole work of technical musical superintendence; and of my son, Mr. Herbert Vaughan Abbott, who in the preparation of the Hymnal has made a special and painstaking study of English hymnody. I am also indebted for valuable suggestions in the preparation of this Hymnal to the Rev. Amory H. Bradford, D. D., the Rev. James A. Chamberlain, D.D., the Rev. Washington Gladden, D.D., the Rev. William Pierson Merrill, D.D., the Rev. Theodore T. Munger, D.D., Dr. H. R. Palmer, the Rev. Edwin P. Parker, D.D., and many others. On another page will be found a list of acknowledgments for permission by authors or owners of copyrights to use copyrighted hymns and tunes. In the Historical Introduction following this Preface, I have explained the connection of this Hymnal with its predecessor, "Plymouth Collection," traced briefly the rise of congregational music in the United States, and stated the principles which it seems to me must govern choir-masters and clergy in endeavoring to promote congregational participation in public worship through the medium of sacred song. LYMAN ABBOTT. PLYMOUTH CHURCH, BROOKLYN, June, 1893. Acknowledgments HE Editor desires to express his warm sense of indebtedness to the many authors who will find their hymns included in this collection, but in especial measure to the Rt. Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, D. D., LL. D., the Rev. John W. Chadwick, the Rev. John F. Genung, Ph. D., the Rev. Washington Gladden, D. D., the Hon. John Hay, Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, M. D., LL. D., Miss Mary A. Lathbury, Thomas Mackellar, Ph. D., the Rev. Frank Mason North, the Rev. Edwin P. Parker, D. D., Mrs. Frances A. Percy, Rossiter W. Raymond, Ph. D., the Rev. Minot J. Savage, the Rev. Samuel Francis Smith, D. D., and the Hon. Stephen V. White, for their cordial consent to the use of their hymns and translations; and to the Rev. Charles Seymour Robinson, D. D., who has kindly permitted the use of his selection and revision of verses from Miss Winkworth which constitutes in this hymnal the 398th hymn. The Editor desires also to thank the following owners of copyrights for permission to use copyrighted hymns: Messrs. D. Appleton and Co. for the hymns of William Cullen Bryant, including hymn 614; the Rev. Morton Dexter for hymn 489, by the late Rev. Henry Martyn Dexter, D. D.; Messrs. E. P. Dutton and Co. for the carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem," by the late Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks; the Rev. George L. Prentiss for hymn 623, by Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss; the Rev. John H. Vincent, D. D. for the hymns of Miss Mary A. Lathbury; and Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Co. for the hymns of Oliver Wendell Holmes, M. D., LL. D., of the late Rev. Samuel Longfellow, and of hymns 271, 289, 376, and 386, selected from the works of John Greenleaf Whittier. In the first of these selections, slight alterations have been introduced, with the permission of the Publishers, as an unavoidable consequence of its abridgment from the poem "Our Master." The same House has kindly assented to the use of the 153d hymn, which has been revised and adapted for singing by the Rev. Stopford A. Brooke from the work of Mr. Whittier. Among the many composers of tunes to whom the Editor is greatly indebted, especial acknowledgment is due to Uzziah C. Burnap, Esq., for tune 388; to Mrs. Marion Christopher for 636; John H. Cornell, Esq., for the use of tunes 187 and 579; W. Howard Doane, Mus. Doc., for 623; John H. Gower, Mus. Doc., for 192 and for 479, the latter with his permission adapted from its original form to a hymn of a slightly different metre; the Rev. John S. B. Hodges for 499; Gen. Horatio C. King for 141; the Rev. Robert Lowry, D. D., for 595; Hubert P. Main, Esq., for 618; the Rev. R. DeWitt Mallary for 616; A. H. Messiter, Mus. Doc., for 124; Horatio R. Palmer, Mus. Doc., for 634; the Rev. Edwin P. Parker, D. D., for 626; Frank L. Sealy, Esq., for 601; George C. Stebbins, Esq., for 55; George F. Root, Mus. Doc., for 399 and 632; Richard Storrs Willis, Esq., for 166, 525, and 624; Samuel A. Ward, Esq., for 469; and Henry Stephen Cutler, Mus. Doc., and S. B. Whitney, Esq., for their cordial assent to the use of tunes composed by them but of which the copyright is in other hands. To the following proprietors of tunes, the Editor is indebted for the free use of copyright material: Messrs. Biglow and Main for the tune "Olive's Brow;" George F. Chickering, Esq., for the tunes of the late John H. Willcox, Mus. Doc.; Mrs. F. G. Ilsley for the tunes of the late F. G. Ilsley, Esq.; the Rev. J. Ireland Tucker, D. D., for the tune "Twilight," by the late Rev. John Henry Hopkins, S. T. D., D. D., for the Rev. Dr. John Bacchus Dykes' setting to "Rock of Ages," and for tune 356, by Henry Stephen Cutler, Mus. Doc.; and the Rt. Rev. John H. Vincent, D. D., for the tune 617, by the late William F. Sherwin, Esq. For the suggestion of foreign tunes which are comparatively unknown in this country, the Editor is especially indebted to John Burkey, Esq., for the Dutch tune "Evensong ;" and to the Rev. Howard S. Bliss for the Arabian air which in this volume is somewhat abridged from its original Arabian form and appears under the name "Beyrout." By special arrangement, permission has been obtained from the Oliver Ditson Co. to publish the tunes "Serenity" and "Omega." The tunes by Ernest Hamlin Abbott, Esq., John Hyatt Brewer, Esq., George W. Chadwick, Esq., H. M. Dunham, Esq., Arthur Foote, Esq., Miss Ella M. Foster, Ernest Hiler, Esq., H. H. Huss, Esq., W. H. Neidlinger, Esq., Ethelbert Nevin, Esq., Sumner Salter, Esq., Robert Thallon, Esq., and R. Huntington Woodman, Esq., appearing in the Hymnal, have been obtained by purchase from the composers. These tunes, together with the tunes of Charles H. Morse, Mus. Bac., are here published for the first time, and with but one exception were written expressly for this book. Should copyrighted property appear in the Hymnal without due acknowledgment, the fact will be attributed, the Editor trusts, to accident and not to intention, great care having been taken to avoid any questionable liberty in the use of either hymns or tunes. 3 Historical Introduction HE Puritans brought with them from the Old World in 1620 a manual of psalmody known as "Ainsworth's Version of the Psalms," which was speedily followed by the "Bay Psalm-Book," composed by the clergy of the colonies. These books contained only versions of the Hebrew psalms, slightly changed in form to adapt them to singing. A single stanza from the Twenty-Third Psalm may suffice to illustrate the literary method: "I The Lord to me a Shepherd is, 2 He in the folds of tender grass Some of the more vigorous Puritans questioned the lawfulness of singing psalms "in Meeter devised by men." To meet this difficulty, at a little later date a version was prepared without metrical form, the psalter being divided, however, into bars of such length as to make their use with psalmtunes possible, thus: 66 Many there be who ever are || saying unto my Soul, || There's no Salvation to be had || for him in God at all." Great questions arose in the churches also as to the methods of singing. "Some believed," says Mr. George Hood, to whose monograph on the "History of Music in New England" we are indebted for these facts, "that Christians should not sing at all, but only praise God with the heart." Others believed it right to sing, but thought it wrong to sing the psalms of David. Some believed it wrong for any but Christians to sing; and others thought one only should sing, while the assembly should join in silence, and respond "Amen." The people were rarely supplied with the psalm-books. The clerk or a deacon read the psalm one line at a time, and when the congregation had sung that line, the second one was read. Dr. Isaac Watts was one of the leaders in the reformation which, after hot discussion and much opposition, finally resulted in the abandonment of this practice of |