Hymns Historically Famous (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Hymns Historically Famous

The purpose of this volume is twofold: To in epire 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 re laxed that a few of those having particular merit, might be annotated. The chapter - Five Lay Hymn Writers - was inserted for two important reasons First, the position those consecrated laymen occupy in Church hymnody in all English-speaking coun tries, 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 profitof public worship. There are many favorite hymns which are perfect in form, exquisite in thought and expression, and which no doubt interpret charming Christian experiences, but not being connected with noteworthy historical facts, they could not properly find a place in this volume.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.