PREFACE
The English Hymnal is a collection of the best hymns in the English language, and is offered as a humble companion to the Book of Common Prayer for use in the Church. It is not a party-book, expressing this or that phase of negation or excess, but an attempt to combine in one volume the worthiest expressions of all that lies within the Christian Creed, from those 'ancient Fathers' who were the earliest hymn-writers down to contemporary exponents of modern aspirations and ideals.
We therefore offer the book to all broad-minded men, in the hope that every one will find within these pages the hymns which he rightly wants. At the same time, since literary, musical, and religious standards vary, a really inclusive collection must of necessity be larger than the needs of each particular individual: hymn books, indeed, afford special facilities in this respect, because those who use them can select according to their requirements. Such a method of selection we have ourselves suggested in the Musical Edition by a List of simple hymns, which may satisfy the ordinary needs of many parishes; while we have also arranged a Table of hymns for all the Sundays and Holy-days of the year, which covers the whole ground. Thus we have endeavoured to produce a book that shall suit the needs of learned and simple alike, and shall at the same time exhibit the characteristic virtue of hymnody,—its witness, namely, to the fact that in the worship of God Christians are drawn the closer together as they are drawn more closely to the one Lord. In Christian song Churches have forgotten their quarrels and men have lost their limitations, because they have reached the higher ground where the soul is content to affirm and to adore. The hymns of Christendom show more clearly than anything else that there is even now such a thing as the unity of the Spirit.
Little explanation is needed of the principles which governed the selection and arrangement of the hymns. The new work, inserted
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