PREFACE.

THIS selection of Psalms from the Old and New Versions is in great part taken from one published by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. An abridgment of that publication, with a large addition of Hymns, has been in use in Bakewell Church since the year 1829, and having become out of print, it has been thought necessary to supply it again, or at least some work of the kind.

In the volume now compiled there is much that was in the former collection, and more that was not there. Many passages from the Old and New

Versions have been added, and many that were in the former volume have been omitted in this. The authorised reading has been adhered to generally; though in a few instances for the sake of perfecting the connexion between the selected verses, a slight change has been made. And in some of the Psalms a different series of stanzas has been substituted for those which were in the former book.

A very important addition to the selection of Psalms from the Old and New Versions has been made in this volume from "The Psalter, or Psalms of David, in English verse," published at Oxford. The compiler is deeply sensible of the kindness of the author of that most faithful and beautiful translation in allowing a selection to be made from it. He fears that he has not always succeeded in making those extracts from the book which

are the best specimens of its extraordinary merit; but he has diligently endeavoured to make such a choice as shall be generally approved of. The Psalms taken from this work are distinguished in this volume by the absence of the letters which are prefixed to the Old or the New Version; and although they appear sometimes where the one or the other, or both of those Versions are retained, and are used frequently as substitutes for them, their introduction in this way, it is hoped, will be acceptable. For from its great faithfulness to the original Hebrew (as the Professor of Hebrew at Oxford has testified), not to speak of the very noble strain of poetry that pervades it the Oxford Psalter, or selections from it, must help towards a truer understanding even of those favourites which are retained in this volume from the Old and New Version.

It is perhaps next to impossible in any metrical translation of the Psalms, to give the full meaning of the original; but our Old and New Versions do not always possess those qualifications which we may conceive ought to be found in such translation. The Old Version is deficient in force, although so carefully translated* as to deserve Bishop Horsley's recommendation as being no small help to the English Reader in the right understanding of the Psalter; but the New Version wants fidelity, and does not even profess to be translated from the original.

The "Hymns" in this selection are partly the same as those which have been in use in Bakewell Church for a long time. As many as sixty of those which were in the former book have been left out in this; thirty-nine have been retained; to these an addition has

*See Preface to the Oxford Psalter.

been made chiefly from the well-known compilations of Mr. Hall and Mr. Cotterill. These works are deservedly in great esteem, and in poetical merit, some of the Psalms and Hymns stand high; but as they do not profess to be translations from or to represent faithfully the literal meaning of the words of the inspired Psalmist, the two works have been resorted to for the

purpose of selecting from them only that species of composition which, strictly speaking, is designated by the word "Hymn." In this volume the object has been to confine the word "Psalm" to a literal, or as near as possible, a literal translation and metrical version of the Psalms of David.

A few pieces have been added from "Anthologia Davidica," Mr. Latham's elaborate and beautiful work, and also a few from the well-known Poems of