Book Description

THE most important musical feature of any service of worship is the singing of hymns by the congregation. When voices are united in Christian song, hearts may readily be joined in common worship. Then it becomes much more than a musical feature. It becomes an act of worship. And all who thus sing are builders of a Temple of Tone wherein their own hearts become the altar, high and lifted up. Be� ore this great thing can come to pass, there must be a familiarity with the hymns-an appreciation of these '' crown jewels of the church." Anyone, then, who directs attention to Christian hymns and stimulates interest in them is adding to our resources for private and public worship. The author of this volume is continuing and extending his Christian ministry by calling attention to the use of hymns and gospel songs on various occasions and exhort�ing us all to sing. He is a retired member of the Northern New York Con� erence of The Methodist Church, honored � or his long and fruitful ministry, and beloved �or his unfailing devotion to the spreading of the gospel through the still wider use of Christian hymns. service of sacred song at which he had listened to the narration of incidents with apparent delight and had joyously joined in the singing. Hymns are a source of joy to persons of all ages; and youth and age alike enjoy sing�ing them. The hymnal stands next to the Bible in the de�votional reading of many people. Workers among young people nnd hymn stories to be an important feature of their work; and preachers know that an illustration relat�ing to a hymn not only makes an effective appeal but is also long remembered. Short hymn stories give comfort�ing satisfaction to sick people in their quiet chambers, especially when they can sometimes sing or hum thein. Great hymns belong to the ages. They are timeless, and always new stories are being associated with them. But this collection of stories does not range over the centuries; it comes from our own century almost entirely. The hymns are mostly old; but the stories are new, Two quotations indicate what a hymn is and its effects. The following was adopted by The Hymn Society of America as its definition of a Christian hymn: '' A Christian hymn is a lyric poem, reverently and de�votionally conceived, which is designed to be sung and which expresses the worshipper's attitude toward God, or God's purposes in human life. It should be simple and metrical in form, genuinely emotional, poetic and literary in style, spiritual in quality, and in its ideas so direct and so immediately apparent as to unify a congregation while singing it." Carl F. Price.