T (1078) DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, to wit: District Clerk's Office. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the fifteenth day of October, A. D. 1330, in the fifty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, CARTER AND HENDEE, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Christian Worship. I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.—Psalm ci. 1." In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned ;" and also to an act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled, 'An Act for the encouragement of learning. by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and pro prietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned;' and extend ing the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching his torical and other prints." JNO. W. DAVIS, Merk of the District of Massachusetts. 781 581600 18344 PREFACE. As some account may be expected, of the principles on which this collection of hymns was made, it will be here given in a few words. My main object has been, to gather from the existing body of divine poetry, those hymns which I deemed the best calculated to be sung in our churches. I consequently adopted all which appeared to me to possess the requisite poetical and devotional character, without regard to the particular denomination of Christians to which their authors belonged. Hymns from Wesley's collection, and some Moravian hymns from the Christian Psalmist of Montgomery, I regard as among the richest contents of this volume. Their delightful fervour, though by some it may be called methodistical, will be thought by others, I trust, to be the true spirit of devotional Christian poetry. I have taken care to alter as little as possible from my originals, and to obtain all hymns, whenever it was practicable, as their authors wrote and published them. The effusions of Watts and Doddridge, the two principal classics in this high and difficult spe |