S.P.C.K. Church Hymns (1903 edn); transcription of the Preface, from a copy in St Deiniol's Library, Hawarden.
(Title Page)
(Preface)
From the time when the need began to be felt, about two generations ago, for a more free use of hymns in Divine Service, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has endeavoured to provide a collection of hymns which should be in harmony with the spirit of the Church of England as represented in her Book of Common Prayer, and which should reflect the wide and catholic spirit of her devotions. The Society accordingly put forth a book of Hymns in 1852, and of Psalms and Hymns in 1855, combining the best of the old "Psalms of David," which supplied almost the sole Hymnody of our Churches for more than two centuries, with the best hymns which had gradually forced their way into congregational and private use. This volume was welcomed in its day, and is still in use in a few places where old traditions of reserved and reticent worship still linger. But as the love of Hymnody spread, and a more free expression of feeling in worship became usual, a fuller collection of the hymns of the last two
centuries was called for, and additions were issued in 1863 and 1869. At length in 1871 a new book of Church Hymns was published by the Society, which at least supplied a large and suitable collection for general use in the Church. But such a collection was, at that time, necessarily of a somewhat tentative character. Church people were, so to say, feeling their way towards the hymns which would be most in harmony with the services of the Prayer Book and with the spiritual needs of congregations; and endeavours were made in various other quarters to meet the general want.Several of those endeavours, some by individuals, some by friends in association, have more or less answered their purposes, and have provided various bodies of Churchmen with the hymnody most in unison with their feelings; and among them Church Hymns has held a prominent place. But the spiritual craving of Church people, together with the general growth in culture, and the enlargement of religious sympathies, seemed to call for further improvement in all such collections, and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge felt bound to respond to this widespread desire.
The result was, that towards the close of 1897 the Society resolved to appoint a Hymn Book Committee of nine persons - three of whom might be persons not menbers of the Society - to whom the preparation and publication of any future Hymn Books of the Society should be entrusted. The persons nominated to serve on this Committee were the late Dr Bright, Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Christ Church, Oxford, Mr W.J.Courthope, C.B., then Professor of Poetry at Oxford, the late Dr Walsham How, Bishop of Wakefield, Mr David Howard, the Rev.Dr Julian, the eminent author of the Dictionary of Hymnology, the Rev.H.L.Paget, Vicar of St. Pancras, the late Mr F.T.Palgrave, formerly Professor of Poetry at Oxford, the Rev.C.H.Turner, now Bishop of Islington, and the Rev. Dr Wace. These names were chosen in the belief that they afforded a good representation of the special learning and the special experience, both among clergymen and laymen, required for the purpose, and at the same time of the various views and sympathies characteristic of the Church. The other members of the Committee will be the first to concur in the feeling that the Society was specially fortunate in obtaining the assistance of the deep liturgical knowledge, the genius for writing hymns, and the primitive spirit of devotion, which marked the late Dr Bright, the unrivalled knowledge of the subject of Dr Julian, and the poetical judgment of the two Oxford Professors of Poetry. To Dr Bright they owe a special debt of gratitude. Though his duties in Convocation obliged him before long to resign his place on the Committee, he prepared for them at the outset an instructive Memorandum on the principles by which they should be guided, and he went through the whole of the existing book of Church Hymns, criticizing in detail the hymns it contained, and suggesting ommissions and additions. Mr Palgrave rendered them similar service; but they were too soon deprived by death both of his aid and of that of the late Bishop of Wakefield. Prebendary Turner found himself obliged to resign on his appointment to the Bishopric of Islington. Such vacancies were filled from time to time by the appointment of the Rev. Walter Abbott, Vicar of Paddington, Bishop Barry, the Rev. W.O.Burrows, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Leeds, Canon Hutton, Priest Vicar of Lincoln Cathedral, and the late Professor Shuttleworth. Owing to other engagements Mr Burrows was soon obliged to retire from the Committee; Mr Shuttleworth, to their great loss, was taken from them by death, but he served long enough to render them invaluable help. His place was taken by Professor Beeching, now Canon of Westminster. The Committee have met regularly during the last five years, month by month, and of late more than once a month, during the working season of the year, and have endeavoured to bestow on their task the sustained and careful attention which its great importance required.
The main object which the Committee have kept in view has simply been to collect the best hymns available for use in Divine Service in the English Church; but they hope that in pursuing this aim they have also produced a Hymn Book which represents the best Hymnody of the Church in all ages. There is not a period of the Church which has not produced its characteristic hymns, and added something to the inheritance of its devotions. The hymns of the ancient Church are still among the choicest of these treasures, and form a precious link between the great divisions of Christendom. The Middle Ages contributed many hymns and sequences which are not less dear to ourselves than to the schoolmen or monks to whose devotion and learning they are due. The age of the Reformation, especially in the land of Luther, was rich in sacred song, and some of the hymns most cherished among us are translated from the German. In England and Scotland the Psalter was rendered into English, and some of the Psalms were thrown into verse of peculiar dignity, which will never die. Finally, during the last two centuries, in each generation, the various movements of English religious life have found their deepest expression in hymns, which, while prompted by special experiences, have come home to hearts in other schools of devotion. None of these numerous and various utterances of the soul in sacred song can be spared from the worship of a Church so comprehensive as the Church of England. The Committee have not, indeed, thought proper to admit into a Hymn Book designed for general use in Church such hymns as are of a peculiarly personal character. As Dr Bright observed in the Memorandum referred to: "Emotional language which would be `real' only to exceptional temperaments is not for a `Church hymn,' whatever may be its tenderness or pathos." They have, however, interpreted this rule with as much liberality as possible, and if they have erred on this point, it has been, they think, on the side of admission rather than of exclusion.
The Committee would moreover call special attention to the care which has been bestowed upon the text of the hymns. The variations which prevail, even in the best Hymn Books, from the text of the authors are extraordinary; and in many cases these variations seem to have been introduced from motives by which the Committee felt that they ought not to be influenced. Changes have too often, for instance, been introduced in order to modify some doctrinal tendency which did not commend itself to compilers, and thus the hymn has been marred as an expression of the special thought or feeling of its author. In many other cases, the taste of one age or school of thought has overridden the at least equally good taste of a previous age. It is indeed permissible, and even necessary, in printing hymns for use in the present day, to vary expressions which, from a change in the use of language, have become obsolete, or even offensive, or which may be quite incompatible with congregational use. But except in cases like these the Committee thought it right to adhere to the original text of the authors, so far as this could be ascertained, and the principle by which they have been guided cannot be better stated than by Dr Bright, in the Memorandum to which they have referred. "I do not think," he said, "that the original texts ought to be deemed sacrosanct, but the alteration ought to be done with a very careful hand, and only under conditions which make it practically necessary." To trace, however, each hymn to its source, to follow up the changes made in it from time to time by the author, and to choose the best version, was a task of much labour and difficulty, and the Committee desire to express the great obligation under which they lie to Dr Julian for his assistance in this branch of their work. His knowledge and the materials which he had at his command were indispensable for the execution of their design; but neither this knowledge nor these materials would have been sufficient without the ungrudging labour and devotion which during the whole of their five years' work he has bestowed upon the book. The result has been, as the Committee confidently believe, that the present Hymn Book contains the most accurate reproduction to be found of the authors' own texts; and if, in the use of the hymns, the reader should be surprised by some phrase unusual to him, he may be assured in the great majority of cases that it is the phrase of the author. In translations, however, or hymns of the nature of translations, this rule has not been so strictly observed. As usual, hymns have been assigned to the customary seasons and occasions of Christian life; and it is hoped it will be found a convenience that under each of these headings the hymns have been printed in the alphabetical order of their first lines.
A vital element in the use of a Hymn Book is the choice and arrangement of the tunes, and for this purpose the Society deems itself fortunate in having obtained the services of Dr C.H.Lloyd, the Precentor and Musical Instructor of Eton College, as the musical editor of the volume. He has worked in union with some members of the Committee who possessed special musical knowledge and experience, and who were acquainted both with the requirements of Cathedral worship and with the practical needs of ordinary parishes. In this, as in other respects, the Committee hope that their book will prove acceptable to all classes. They trust it will be found in harmony with the large and free spirit of true sons and daughters of the English Church, and may serve, in the memorable language of the Preface to The Christian Year, to bring the thoughts and feelings of those who use it "into more entire unison with those recommended and exemplified in the Prayer Book." They are confident that, so far as this may have been achieved, they will have provided a Hymn Book which will be generally welcome to English Christians, and they pray God that it may serve to promote his glory, and the Christian life and Christian worship of our people.
[ copyright acknowledgements follow, not transcribed here ]
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