UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF GEORGE HOGARTH, ESQ., W. P. KENNEDY, 15, SOUTH ST. ANDREW STREET. GLASGOW: D. BRYCE. GREENOCK: J. G. BANKIER. AYR: R. GUTHRIE. PERTH: J. DEWAR. AND J. NISBET, & CO. BELFAST: W. M'COMB. NEW YORK: J. CARTER. MDCCCXLV. M 2136 F14 ADDRESS. FOR several past years, the improvement of Congregational Singing has engaged the attention of the Church of Scotland, by whose authority the charge of this subject was intrusted to a Sub-Committee of the Committee on Education. The General Assembly of 1844, deeming it sufficiently important to require the attention of a separate Committee, passed the following Resolution on 24th May in that year :-" The General Assembly called for the Overture by certain Members of the House anent the improvement of Church Music. The Assembly, having heard the Overture, cordially concur therewith, remit to a Committee, with power to add to their number, to adopt such measures as may seem best for carrying out the desirable object which it contemplates; and to report to next Assembly." The matter of this Remit being the Singing of the Psalms, it was at once determined in the Committee, that these ought to be sung in four parts. 1st, Because, according to a provision of nature, there exist in every miscellaneous meeting of human beings, the four classes of voices represented by the musical terms, Treble, Counter-Tenor, Tenor, and Bass,—the first embracing the highest, and the others the gradually descending pitches, down to the last, which, as its name imports, is the lowest. 2dly, Because, were all these classes of voices to sing the same part, viz. the melody, there would be confusion, of which God is not the author, but man, causing a screeching, groaning, risping, and uncertain sound, which is not harmony, and is scarcely music-though this is the singing of too many of our Congregations; whereas, if the melody were sung by females and children, whose voices are treble, and all the others took the respective parts natural to them, there would be, in our Churches, such a "breaking forth into singing," as would place this branch of devotional exercise on its true level, in so far as this can be effected by natural means. And lastly, Because this was the practice of the Church in its best days, one of the earliest fruits of the Reformation, both on the Continent and in this country, being the singing of the Psalms by the Congregation at large, and in parts. That this was especially true of Scotland-in all ages a musical land—is proved by the still existing copies of "John Knox's Psalms," arranged for four parts, two fronting one way in the book, and two the other, for the convenience of greater numbers reading together from them; and likewise by various historical facts recorded in our Church histories. The practice, it is true, declined during last century. But this took place just as the Church declined; and with the abandonment of Part-singing, Singing itself sunk by degrees, till at length, in many Churches, it in substance died away altogether. It is equally true, however, of singing, as of religious conviction itself, that "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh." It has pleased God, of late years, to revive His work in the midst of us; and a revived desire for congregational singing has not failed to be the consequence. The Committee, accordingly, has not so much felt it necessary to stimulate this desire, as to regulate and guide it; and the present Work may be regarded as the first step in this direction. The possession of a Book of Psalm Tunes for the use of the Church, may be justly regarded as preliminary to every other step; because, whatever may be the case with a few, the people at large are unacquainted with Part-singing; and it is important, if not necessary, that, when proceeding to learn, they should adopt some one book, without which, unity of singing cannot be attained; while it is quite certain, that though in this department of art, it is emphatically true, that of making many books there is no end, still there exists no one of such pre-eminent excellence as to command universal acceptance. But it may not unreasonably be expected, that a book published expressly for the use of the Free Church may, even without |