A SELECTION OF HYMNS, FROM THE BEST AUTHORS, INCLUDING A GREAT NUMBER OF ORIGINALS; INTENDED TO BE AN APPENDIX TO DR. WATTS'S PSALMS & HYMNS. BY JOHN RIPPON, D.D. CONTAINING All the Additional Hymns, WITH ABOUT FOUR HUNDRED, NOW FIRST ADDED, IN ALL UPWARDS OF ELEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY HYMNS, IN ONE HUNDRED METRES, WITH COPIOUS INDICES, INCLUDING AN INDEX OF THE FIRST LINE OF EVERY VERSE. LONDON: WILLIAM WHITTEMORE, AND HOULSTON AND STONEMAN, PREFACE. THIS Selection of Hymns has, for upwards of half a century, had a very extended circulation. Since it was first published, in 1787, successive additions have been made to it, greatly increasing its usefulness and acceptability. Notwithstanding the number of Hymns added to former editions, the churches and congregations using "The Selection" needed a still farther increase of Hymns, for the varied circumstances of Public, Social, Family, and Private Worship. To meet to some considerable extent this demand, in addition to the incorporation of former improvements, the present edition is enriched by nearly FOUR HUNDRED ADDITIONAL HYMNS, which have been interspersed throughout the volume, under the several general divisions of subjects, as parts under the number affixed to the former Hymns, it being considered inexpedient to make any alteration in the numbering. The greater portion of those now added have been inserted in the latter sections of the volume, particularly under the following heads :-Before and After Sermon,-the Ordinances,-Missionary and Church Meetings,-Domestic and Parental Piety, Maternal Associations,-the Young,-the Aged,-Affliction,-Death and Funeral Occasions,-the Second Coming of Christ,-the Day of Judgment,-Heaven, &c.; upon which subjects it is impossible to have too many good Hymns. It may not be too much to say, in reference to this large number of additional Hymns, that for their scriptural sentiment, poetic excellence, elevated piety, devotional tendency, metrical variety, general appropriateness, and practical utility, they will not suffer by comparison with any similar number of Hymns published. They do honour to the volume in which they are incorporated, and to the age we live in ; and to their authors the churches of Christ are under unspeakable obligation. Indeed, it is hardly possible to attach too much importance to this department of Christian literature. The Hymn Book, as an eminent writer most truly and eloquently remarks, "claims and commands access to the closet and the sanctuary, and is even admitted to companionship with the volume of inspiration. It is the chief mean and thannel of the church's praise-it is the settled expression of her views of gospel doctrine-it is the regulated utterance of her experience of the power of truth-it is the tairror of her moral likeness—it is her poetical liturgy, and it enters essentially into All her spiritual exercises and enjoyments." With these, and the following remarks of the same writer, the Editor of the present Work most fully sympathizes: "Such considerations surround the enterprise with wwe, and fill the mind of an editor with reverence. He feels that he is engaged in a Dr. Campbell. solemn work-he considers that he is forming an instrument for the sublimeet and holiest of purposes-he knows that its utility depends upon the Divine approbation, and that the Eternal Spirit will approve and bless it only in so far as it is the faithful expounder of his own work, and in full harmony with his own word." Dr. Rippon's Selection has long been all that has been so well stated in the above paragraph. The present edition rests its claims to the continued support of the churches and congregations upon the following grounds : 1st. Its comprehensiveness, comprising as it does, not less than ELEVEN HUN DRED AND FORTY HYMNS, exclusive of the " SACRED MELODIES," which form a kind of supplement to the work, and are, as is there stated, intended only for uses less public, though not less important and sacred, which it is hoped will profit the soul, while they please and gratify a poetical and musical taste. 2nd. Its metrical variety, which, as singing classes are now being generally formed, for the purpose of improving the character of congregational singing, will be found of no small service in supplying appropriate words to almost every tune which has found a place in the several published collections of Congregational Psalmody. This volume, as the Index of Metres shows, contains Hymns in about ONE Hundred DIFFERENT METRES. 3rd. Facility of reference, it having, besides an Analysis of Contents and most copious and carefully collated Indices of the First Lines of Hymns-of Metres-of Subjects-and of Scripture Texts-also an Index of the First Line of EVERY Verse, which in a Collection so extensive as the present, will be a great convenience to those upon whom it devolves to select and read the Hymns in public worship, as well as to those who, either in the sanctuary or in private, may wish to find a Hymn of which they have only a partial recollection. 4th. Its cheapness; considering the vast quantity of matter it contains, is without a parallel in the hymnology of the Christian church. It will, therefore, be manifest, that a considerable sale is required to meet the amount of capital embarked in this undertaking such a sale is most confidently anticipated, because it will have a most powerful claim upon all our churches, inasmuch as 5th. The appropriation of the entire profits of all future issues of this and the largest size of the Comprehensive Edition of Dr. Rippon's Selection, after the liabilities incurred in this enterprise are discharged, and the present design of publication accomplished, will be for the benefit of the widows and orphans of our Ministers and Missionaries. May it please the great Head of the church to continue to make this work a powerful instrument in advancing the interests of his kingdom and the glory of his holy name. Amen. January 1, 1844. INDEX TO FIRST LINES OF HYMNS. Hymn and Page. Ages, ages have departed All ... ............ 223 123 150 Hymn and Page. And will the Judge descend........... 572 And will th' offended God........ I p. 299 And will ye go away............... 2 p. 439 Angels and saints, your anthems ... 645 Angels, from the realms........... 4 p. 129 Angels, roll the rock away ......... 142 Another six days' work is done...... 348 Another week for ever........... 4 p. 345 ..... 80 597 A pilgrim in this world ........... 8 p. 584 185 5 p. 535 345 543 124 And be it so, that, till this hour...... 230 ....... 40 13 302 349 |