Excerpt from A Collection of Familiar and Original Hymns With New Meanings Have I my race begun; Thy ways, once known or under And crowned with victory at thy stood, feet, Are merciful and just. I'll lay my honors down. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com 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.

Understanding the culture of living with hymnbooks offers new insight into the histories of poetry, literacy, and religious devotion. It stands barely three inches high, a small brick of a book. The pages are skewed a bit, and evidence of a small handprint remains on the worn, cheap leather covers that don’t quite close. The book bears the marks of considerable use. But why—and for whom—was it made? Christopher N. Phillips’s The Hymnal is the first study to reconstruct the practices of reading and using hymnals, which were virtually everywhere in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Isaac Watts invented a small, words-only hymnal at the dawn of the eighteenth century. For the next two hundred years, such hymnals were their owners’ constant companions at home, school, church, and in between. They were children's first books, slaves’ treasured heirlooms, and sources of devotional reading for much of the English-speaking world. Hymnals helped many people learn to memorize poetry and to read; they provided space to record family memories, pass notes in church, and carry everything from railroad tickets to holy cards to business letters. In communities as diverse as African Methodists, Reform Jews, Presbyterians, Methodists, Roman Catholics, and Unitarians, hymnals were integral to religious and literate life. An extended historical treatment of the hymn as a read text and media form, rather than a source used solely for singing, this book traces the lives people lived with hymnals, from obscure schoolchildren to Emily Dickinson. Readers will discover a wealth of connections between reading, education, poetry, and religion in Phillips’s lively accounts of hymnals and their readers.

Excerpt from Familiar Hymns (New Edition, ): Alphabetically Arranged, for the Use of Sunday-Schools, Social Gatherings for Worship, and for Family and Private Devotion English tongue. The compiler desires to express his thanks for the kind assistance they have ren dered him. And for liberty to use such Of their copyrighted pieces as were desired. The hand some typographical appearance of the book is due to their advice and supervision. To Mr. Sylvester Main he is under special obligations for valuable suggestions and careful revision of each hymn. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com 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.

The Complete Book of Hymns brings to life the stories behind more than 600 hymns and worship songs. With background on the composer, the inspiration behind the lyrics, scriptural references for devotional consideration, and a sampling of the song lyrics, this book brings forth the message of these great songs of the faith like never before!

Providing literary analysis and historical background, Leland Ryken invites us to experience great hymns as powerful works of devotional poetrysavoring elements that we easily miss when singing them.

Nearly 300 classic, time-honored hymns your choir and congregation will love singing! Our selections are musical, singable, truly sacred, theologically solid, and-for the most part-familiar, although you will also find some that are new to you. All 295 hymns are scored for the organ in this ORGAN EDITION and use traditional hymn texts, not modern adaptations. This organ edition is a companion volume to A Catholic Book of Hymns, a true SATB four-part harmony hymnal for Catholic congregations. Catholics can sing and will sing in harmony if they are given the music to hold in their hands.The organ edition is 7 by 10 inches, larger than the standard pew book, making the music easier to read when it is on the organ music rack. What's different about this book? Hymn books are scored for singers, not organists or pianists. Books of hymns loos strangely different to an organist because it is very different.If you're a singer, every syllable of each word has to have its own note, which, if played on the organ or piano, makes the music choppy. Sung by the human voice, the same line sounds smooth and musical, not at all choppy because the singers' consonants merely alter the vowel sound but don't divide the music with percussion and silence as when you hear the same phrase played on a keyboard.Hymnbook music forces the organist to adapt on the fly, not playing all the notes, playing some - but not all of the repeated notes - into long-held notes. It is a difficult trick to learn to instantaneously convert an entire choir score into organ music in your brain.To some organists this conversion of vocal music to organ becomes second nature, but others are never able to grasp it. As a result, they can grow to dislike playing hymns, finding them a chore and feeling frustrated-especially when they hear another organist and wish they could play like that. There is a simple solution. Play the hymns from a matching organ edition that has all the hymns written out as organ music.And that's exactly what organists say when they discover this organ edition: "Well, now, this looks like organ music. I can play this." One of the benefits of A Catholic Book of Hymns is that all the hymns are free to post and use in streaming and podcasts without payment or permission needed. Play, sing and revel in the sound of your choir and congregation all singing in harmony. What people are saying about A Catholic Book of Hymns I wish my parish was in the market for a new hymnal. This would be perfect . . . this could possibly be the most comprehensive Catholic hymnal in existence.- Henry GaidaI looked through this hymnal, and I love it! I've been looking for something like this, where I don't have to go searching through several different hymnals to find what I need. It's hard to find a hymnal that combines selections that are traditional in the United States and the beautiful British hymns that have good (not sappy) English texts. . . . [This] also has hymns that are good for Roman Catholic devotions.- Kaoru TamuraThank you for creating this resource. It's comforting to see the proper texts and not what seems to be the rage lately, of changing the text to suit the mood of the day.- Michael KeefeThank you so much for this wonderful compilation. The whole website is a great contribution to Catholic music.- Daniel ArbergOn the whole, a very impressive list. A fine work indeed!- M. Jackson OsbornSo excited to see A Catholic Book of Hymns up on Sacred Music Library. I had suggested Great St. Joseph and Hail, Glorious St. Patrick a few months ago. Glad to see they made the final cut. These are two gems of hymns, and I haven't seen them in any modern hymn books. Good to see them in this hymnal, engraved so beautifully and clearly. Thank you for your continuing contribution to the Church, especially in sacred music.- Matthew Ramire

These hymns, the Magnificat, Benedictus and Nunc Dimittis, are a familiar part of Christian liturgy; but their origin is uncertain, their meaning debated and their significance within Luke-Acts often ignored. This monograph argues that they were composed in Hebrew by Jewish-Christian poets, and were incorporated by the evangelist as anticipating certain key themes of his own work.

This book is a successful attempt to provide additional avenues for the scriptures to find a home in human hearts. In this volume Mountain supplies at least one scripture paraphrase and/or theme hymn to go along with existing hymn tunes for each Sunday and major festival in the Revised Common Lectionary for all three cycles.The hymn-canticles in this collection may be used as hymns in their own right, or as lyrical substitutes for the scripture readings. It is the author's opinion that these are most effective as the hymn that either precedes or follows the sermon or as hymns to underscore the meaning of other special events in worship.In addition to chapters for cycles A, B and C, there is an index for hymn-canticles listed by books of the Bible, an index for theme hymns, and an extensive bibliography.Charles Mountain has given us new liturgical thoughts for some wonderful old hymn tunes. Such new thoughts give us pause to think anew about our relationship with our heavenly Father. Certainly, these new thoughts tied together with familiar melodies will be helpful and meaningful for congregation in our modern setting. David W. Peters Pastor, Messiah Lutheran Church Denver, CO