The Enchiridion

Congregational Hymn Book (J.Conder, 1844)

[ transcriptions of Title page and (part of) the Preface, from a copy in The Congregational Library, London ]

[ Title page ]

(following Title Page)

[ The hymn numbers mentioned here are not identified in the foreword; the actual first lines under these nunbers in the 1844 book are bracketed below. ]

Five hymns, viz.

161 ( O for a thousand tongues to sing )

441 ( Not unto us, but to Thy grace )

489 ( O'er the gloomy hills of darkness )

608 ( Thou God of glorious majesty )

and

611 ( The hour of my departure's come )

have been removed to make room for others deemed more appropriate for Congregational use, or peculiarly endeared to pious persons by sacred associations.

In seven other hymns, viz.

46 [ Lord of the Sabbath, hear our vows ]

170 [ See Israel's gentle Shepherd stands ]

216 [ Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah ]

347 [ He dies, the Friend of Sinners dies! ]

534 [ Come, Thou Fount of every blessing! ]

540 [ Jesus! and can it ever be? ]

and

568 [ There is a fountain filled with blood ]

the Committee, giving way to a wish very extensively expressed, have restored, more or less entirely, the original form of the composition.

In hymn 162 [ Come, Father, Son and Holy Ghost ] , on the other hand, some alterations have been made, in order to remove an objection taken to the original, as seeming to countenance the unscriptural doctrine of baptismal regeneration.

With the exception of a word or two in a few other instances, the above thirteen are the only hymns in which variations will be found in the revised edition.

Congregational Library

March 1, 1844

(part of ) Josiah Conder's Preface to the original (1836) edition:

. . . The general directions by which the Editor had to guide himself, as agreed upon by the Sub-Committee, were, that the Selection should be framed on the principal of special adaptation to Congregational worship; hymns for private and family devotion being reserved for a distinct part of the work; and that preference shold be given to hymns containing direct addresses to the Divine Being. It was the opinion of the Committee, that a great deficiency of hymns of praise and adoration characterizes most of our modern collections; and that our Psalmody is in some danger of being too much diverted from its primary purpose, by the introduction of so large a proportion of metrical compositions of a descriptive, sentimental or didactic character, instructive and edifying in themselves, but not in the form or spirit of either prayer or praise. . . .

. . . Another class of hymns in which Dr Watts has been found deficient, is of an experimental cast. For these, we have to turn to the fervent compositions of Charles Wesley, to the pathetic complaints of Cowper, and to other writers of inferior order, whose hymns owe their popularity to this character. But, keeping in view the adaptation of the Selection to Congregational worship, it has been deemed proper to place a large proportion of these effusions of piety among those appropriate to the family and the closet; although some of them may, perhaps, be deemed suitable for occasional use at Sacramental and other services of a more private nature, under the guidance of a sounder discretion than is sometimes found to preside over the choice of hymns for public worship.

One of the most arduous and delicate points for the determination of the Editor, related to the licence allowable in altering or abridging the productions of others. He confesses that he entered upon his task with a very strong impression against the justice and propriety of this proceeding; and if he shall be thought to have discovered no such feeling of restraint or compunction in the freedoms he has taken, he can only say, that he has found his intentions overruled by a stronger necessity. In many hymns that it was deemed proper to retain, there occur improprieties of phraseology, and inaccuracies of rhyme and composition, which it was impossible to leave untouched. Indeed, amid the the varying editions of the same hymn, it is often difficult to discover the genuine original. Both Toplady and Wesley, as well as subsequent Editors, carried to a great extent their adaptations and mutilations of the hymns they selected. Charles Wesley himself, one of the most beautiful of our sacred poets, is often bold, careless, and unequal to an extreme, and requires a pruning hand to render his hymns fit for general use. . . .

JOSIAH CONDER

Watford Field House,

May 9, 1836

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(The Rejoice & Sing Enchiridion:edited by David Goodall; last amended 26/1/04)