Annotations Upon Popular Hymns, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Annotations Upon Popular Hymns, Vol. 1<br><br>These Annotations have been provided with Indexes, particular and voluminous, so that references to hymns by the Authors of them, as well as by the First Lines of them, can easily be reached. Hence they might be used with almost all the best hymnals in common employment in evangelical churches. For the sake of following some order and establishing some limit in the selection, the hymns have been chosen mostly from Laudes Domini, issued in 1884, and New Laudes Domini, issued in 1892 - two manuals for singing by choirs and congregations, which have attained a phenomenally wide use among the various Christian denominations.<br><br>It is interesting to notice an intelligent growth in public sentiment concerning the general subject of hymnological study. Churches now are not satisfied with mere stanzas which might be lined out to be sung in fragments. They want hymns that are poetical in spirit and in structure rhythmical and lyrical. Within a few years no hymnbook has had prosperity unless it has supplied the names of the authors with at least some hints concerning their biographies. Out of this has rapidly been developed a taste for inquiry concerning the histories of particular pieces which God's singing people have learned to love. And a great wealth of new compositions has suddenly been put within the glad reach of the various denominations of Christians during the three decades just closing the nineteenth century. Little by little the familiar names of Ray Palmer, Charlotte Elliott, Horatius Bonar, Edward Caswall, Frances Ridley Havergal, Thomas Hastings, and John Mason Neale have advanced into fame until their contributions to the sacred songs of the religious world are rivaling in number and worth those of Isaac Watts, Anne Steele, James Montgomery, and even John Newton and William Cowper and Charles Wesley. We all want to know about these choristers of many choirs and lands and tongues, many of whom are already singing in their white robes on the other side of the mysterious vail.<br><br>The volume now laid before the public has grown slowly through a period of years. It has been prepared specially as a help for "Praise Meetings," or so-called "Services of Song." Almost any hymn appropriate to such employment in a promiscuous Sabbath gathering of God's devout people may be found here suitably noticed. It lowers the tone of joyous and happy-hearted worship of the Highest to spend the hours announced for communion and thanksgiving in singing the pieces appropriate only to camp meetings and to gospel missions for the conversion of sinners. It is very rare, if ever, that hymns of wrestling conviction or of poignant penitence can be utilized in a jubilant act of worship.<br><br>The various paragraphs of incident and exposition, of biography, history, literary criticism, and art suggestion, which are attached now and then to the data of authorship and composition in the book, cannot be appreciated nor even understood unless this explanation is intelligently accepted. The attempt is made in each annotation to give to an inexperienced leader a thought of such a character that he will find a hint in it or out of it available in the course of the comment he will have to frame as he introduces each piece to be sung. Much depends on the taste and aptitude of the minister who presides in these services. He must always preach. No spiritual man has any business to give up a Christian pulpit on the Lord's Day to anything besides preaching God's gospel of salvation to men.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com