our research, how much food for true piety is afforded through Catholic devotional books to the masses of darkened minds within that Church of Error.

We have gathered many exquisite hymns from the Moravian Collections, developing the most tender and loving views of Christ, of his personal presence, and gentle companionship. We know of no hymn writers that equal their faith and fervor for Christ, as present with His people. Nor can any one conversant with these fail to recognize the fountain in which the incomparable Charles Wesley was baptized. His hymns are only Moravian hymns re-sung. Not alone are the favorite expressions used and the epithets which they loved, but like them, he beholds all Christian truths through the medium of confiding ove. The love-element of this school has never been surpassed.

To say that we have sought for hymns expressing the deepest religious feeling, and particularly the sentiments of love, and trust, and divine courage, and hopefulness, is only to say that we have drawn largely from the best Methodist hymns. The contributions of the Wesleys to Hymnology have been so rich as to leave the Christian world under an obligation which can not be paid so long as there is a struggling Christian brotherhood to sing and be comforted amid the trials of this world.

Charles Wesley was peculiarly happy in making the Scripture illustrate Christian experience, and personal experience throw light upon the deep places of the Bible. Some of his effusions have never been surpassed. Nor are there any hymns that could more nobly express the whole ecstacy of the Apostolic writings in view of death and heaven.

Cowper, Stennett, Newton, Doddridge, Mrs. Steele, and many other familiar authors, will be found in this collec tion, as in every other that aspires to usefulness.

With whatever partiality to Dr. Watts we may have begun this compilation, a comparison of his hymns and psalms with the best effusions of the best hymn-writers has only served to increase our admiration, and our conviction that he stands incomparably above all other English writers. Nor do we believe any other man, in any department, has contributed so great a share of enjoyment, edification, and inspiration to struggling Christians as Dr. Watts. We have retained the greatest number of his versions of the Psalms, though under the title of Hymns. A table is prefixed by which the version of any particular psalm may be found.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

BROOKLYN, N. Y., August 10, 1855.

PLYMOUTH COLLECTION.

1.

L. M.

1. SWEET is the work, my God, my King,
To praise Thy name, give thanks, and sing;
To show Thy love by morning light,
And talk of all Thy truth at night.

2. Sweet is the day of sacred rest,
No mortal care shall seize my breast;
O may my heart in tune be found,
Like David's harp of solemn sound!

3. My heart shall triumph in my Lord,
And bless His works, and bless His word;
Thy works of grace, how bright they shine;
How deep Thy counsels, how divine!

4. Fools never raise their thoughts so high;
Like brutes they live, like brutes they die;
Like grass they flourish, till Thy breath
Blasts them in everlasting death.

b. But I shall share a glorious part,
When grace hath well refined my heart,
And fresh supplies of joy are shed,
Like holy oil, to cheer my head,

6. Then shall I see, and hear, and know,
All I desired or wished below;

And every power finds sweet employ
In that eternal world of joy.

WATTS.

1. How pleasant, how divinely fair,
O Lord of hosts, Thy dwellings are;
With long desire my spirit faints
To meet th' assemblies of Thy saints.
2. My flesh would rest in Thine abode,
My panting heart cries out for God;'
My God, my King, why should I be
So far from all my joys and Thee!

3. Blest are the souls that find a place
Within the temple of Thy grace;
There they behold Thy gentler rays,
And seek Thy face, and learn Thy praise.

4. Blest are the men whose hearts are set
To find the way to Zion's gate:

God is their strength; and through the road
They lean upon their helper, God.

5. Cheerful they walk with growing strength,
Till all shall meet in heaven at length;
Till all before Thy face appear,

3.

And join in nobler worship there.

L. M.

1. My opening eyes with rapture see
The dawn of Thy returning day;
My thoughts, O God, ascend to Thee,
While thus my early vows I pay.

WATTS.

2. Oh bid this trifling world retire,
And drive each carnal thought away;
Nor let me feel one vain desire-
One sinful thought through all the day.

3. Then, to Thy courts when I repair,
My soul shall rise on joyful wing,
The wonders of Thy love declare,
And join the strains which angels sing.

4.

5.

L. M.

1. THINE earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love,
But there's a nobler rest above;
To that our longing souls aspire,
With cheerful hope and strong desire.
2. No more fatigue, no more distress,
Nor sin, nor death shall reach the place;
No groans shall mingle with the songs
Which warble from immortal tongues;
3. No rude alarms of raging foes,

No cares to break the long repose,
No midnight shade-no clouded sun-
But sacred, high, eternal noon.

4. Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love,
But there's a nobler rest above;
To that our longing souls aspire,
With cheerful hope, and strong desire.

L. M.

1. GOD in His temple let us meet;

DODDRIDGE.

Low on our knees before Him bend;
Here hath he fixed His mercy-seat;
Here on His Sabbaths we attend.

2. Arise into Thy resting-place,

Thou, and Thine ark of strength, O Lord! Shine through the vail, we seek Thy face; Speak, for we hearken to Thy word.

3. With righteousness Thy saints array;
Joyful Thy chosen people be;

Let those who teach and those who pray-
Let all be holiness to Thee.

MONTGOMERY.

1. O SACRED day of peace and joy,
Thy hours are ever dear to me;
Ne'er may a sinful thought destroy
The holy calm I find in Thee.