Transcription of editorial introduction to William Williams's two collections of hymns in English: Hosannah to the Son of David 1759, and Gloria in Excelsis 1772; included in the two-volume Collected Works Gweithiau Williams Pant-y-celyn, edited by N.Cynhafal Jones, 1891. (Introduction in Vol.2 p.393, preceding the two Collections.)
NOTES BY THE EDITOR
The first of the following collections of his English Hymns was published by the Author in the year 1759. It will be seen that several of these are translations of some of the Author's well-known Welsh Hymns, while most of them were new and original.
The second, Gloria in Excelsis, was composed at the request of Lady Huntingdon, to be used in the service of some Hospital for Orphans which Whitfield had established in America. It was published in 1772, and printed at Camarthen by John Ross.
The reader cannot avoid observing in the following pages the carelessness that is so characteristic of the Author's Welsh writings; but this blemish is more than compensated for by the elevated tone, the easy rhythm, the freshness of thought and imagery, and -- what is better still -- by the true and deep spiritual feeling which permeates most of the Hymns. There are no Hymns in the English language more widely known and oftener sung by Christian congregations than some of those sweet songs of Williams, Pant-y-celyn; and we are persuaded that a far greater number of his Hymns would have obtained a more general currency in Church Hymn Books, and would have gained similar popularity, but for the lamentable fact that the taste of the Compilers is too often regulated by their Sectarianism.
The Editor has strictly prohibited himself and the Printer to tamper with the original text; the reader, therefore, will find here the Hymns of the great Christian Poet of Wales, with all their faults and merits, just as he left them.
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(The Rejoice & Sing Enchiridion:edited by David Goodall; last amended 7/7/01)