A CHURCH OF ENGLAND HYMN BOOK ADAPTED TO THE Daily Services of the Church THROUGHOUT THE YEAR COMPILED AND EDITED BY THE REV. GODFREY THRING Rector of Alford with Hornblotton 'Sing ye praises with understanding '--Ps. xlvii. 7 BIBLIOTHECA AUC 1882 EIANA, W. SKEFFINGTON & SON, 16 PICCADILLY MDCCCLXXX PREFACE. In adding another to the many Hymn-books already in circulation, the Compiler does not feel that any apology is necessary. Without life there can be no progress, and without progress there can be no real life; and few things perhaps more clearly show how much real life exists in the Church at the present day than the great improvements that have been made in our hymn-books, and the number of good hymns that have been written during the last thirty years. But although the time is past when any rhyme, however childish, was thought good enough to be sung in our churches, yet from the number to be found in the most popular hymn-books of so-called hymns, which are either mere statements of doctrine in rhymed prose, or effusions of false sentiment and almost profane familiarity, it is clear that the time has not yet come for the authorized Hymnal advocated by not a few. Even admitting the existence of some minor advantages which such a compilation might possess, and setting aside for the moment the difficult question as to the persons to whom such a work could be entrusted and the principles on which it should be carried out, it may be suggested that no such collection could be imposed, like a liturgy, authoritatively on the church; that many congregations would be dissatisfied with a hymnal which did not reflect their own doctrinal views, and that no collection, however |