ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. The author acknowledges his obligations to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., for permission to use hymns by Whittier and Holmes; to The John Church Company, for the hymn by Spafford; and to Mr. James McGranahan, the composer, for the hymn by Dr. Cornelius. He is also indebted to The Biglow & Main Company for the popular portrait of Miss Crosby; to The A. D. F. Randolph Company for the best likeness extant of Mrs. Prentiss; to T. Fisher Unwin, the London publisher of the Life of Cowper, for the expressive face of the amiable poet; to The Macmillan Company, London and New York, for the profile of Keble; and to Marshall Denison Smith of Chicago, for the portraits of Toplady, Lyte, Elliott, Duffield, and Palmer. ILLUSTRATIONS. Nicholas Smith (author) Thomas Ken Isaac Watts Charles Wesley John Henry Newman Horatius Bonar . 208 INTRODUCTION. The purpose of this volume is twofold: To inspire a warmer love of Church song; and to make the reader better acquainted with that class of hymns which are noted for the history they have made. The special aim has been to take the more popular and useful of our familiar compositions and give a fuller and more connected story of the lives of the authors, the origin of the hymns, with incidents of interest and value illustrating their influence, than have yet appeared in any annotated hymnal either in America or Great Britain. Twenty-three chapters are devoted to Church hymns and gospel songs which have two common characteristics universal popularity, and the power to make spiritual history. Many hymns are historic solely because their origin is closely related to some striking event, or associated with some hallowed experience; and the rule governing the scope of the book has been relaxed that a few of those having particular merit, might be annotated. The chapter-Five Lay HymnWriters-was inserted for two important reasons: First, the position those consecrated laymen occupy in Church hymnody in all English-speaking countries, is unique; and, second, the hymns selected from their writings and printed in these pages, are of great poetic beauty, and add much to the pleasure and profit |