PREFACE.
In better and holier ages than this, when the sacred flame inkindled by the faith of Christ, the hope of heaven, and the love of God and man, burned brighter and steadier in men's hearts, the fathers gave way to the warmth of their devotion in hymns of such surpassing beauty and such deep and glowing feeling, that I believe there is none that bears the shape and soul of man, but who will speedily find on them the stamp of unfeigned and all-embracing charity, the marks of a "heart that God has touched," and lips that have been cleansed by fire from off the altars of the heaven of heavens.
Latin, the consecrated language of all Christendom, farther beautified with the sparkling ornament of rhyme, was the appropriate garb
