THE SUNDAY SCHOOL HYMNARY A TWENTIETH CENTURY HYMNAL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. WORDS AND MUSIC EDITED BY PUBLISHED AT 57 & 59 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON BY THE SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION MDCCCCV. PREFATORY NOTES. THE AIM OF "THE SUNDAY SCHOOL HYMNARY." This book is sent forth in the earnest hope that it may minister to a reverential, sincere, yet glad worship in the Sunday School. The Graded Arrangement of the Hymns for the Junior, Middle, and Senior Sections of the Scholars will, it is believed, help to this desired end. THE OLD AND THE NEW. Old Hymns and Tunes have an honourable place, but the best writers and composers of later years are also represented; and probably as the newer pieces become known they will be deemed worthy of retention in the praise of the modern Sunday School. PRINCIPLES OF HYMN SELECTION. In regard to Hymns-whilst giving due consideration to Literary and Lyrical qualities, the Editor has followed the general principle of selecting those which young people can sing with sincerity. Many pieces popular in Sunday Schools have been purposely passed over as being either weakly sentimental, or beyond the stage of youthful experience. Others have been omitted because consisting of bare doctrinal statements having no inspirational or ethical value. "HYMNS THAT HELP." The best hymns for use in the Sunday School are (to adopt and apply Mr. W. T. Stead's suggestive phrase) "Hymns that help" in the building up of a strong, all-round, Christly character; and the Editor and Publishers covet no greater result for their efforts than the knowledge that many of the hymns here brought together have been thus found helpful. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS RE DATES. In the matter of Dates, grateful acknowledgments are made of indebtedness to the researches of Mr. J. R. Griffiths, Mr. Jas. T. Lightwood, and others. The splendid Dictionary of Hymnology," edited by Rev. Canon Julian, has been of exceptional service. 66 Where a single date is given it is that of the year when the Hymn or Tune was first published. Where such a date has not been obtainable the years of the Author's or Composer's Birth and Death have been substituted. |