THE HYMN BOOK OF THE New Connexion OF GENERAL BAPTISTS, Selected from more than FIFTY DIFFERENT AUTHORS: THE WHOLE BEING CLASSED AND ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THEIR RESPECTIVE SUBJECTS. 122002 New Edition.-Revised under the direction of the Annual Association. TO WHICH ARE ADDed, SUPPLEMENTARY HYMNS FOR SABBATH-SCHOOLS. LEICESTER: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT THE General Baptist Printing-Office, and Book and Tract Depository, BY HULL, HARVEY, AND COMPY. PREFACE. Or the various ways in which the benevolent Creator has enabled Mankind to express their sensations of joy, singing is one of the most common and expressive. There appears to Le no reason why this delightful exercise should not form a part of the worship of God, under that spiritual dispensation, in which christians are enjoined to “rejoice in the Lord always." But while we are permitted, in this way, to express our sacred joy, to bring to recollection the important doctrines and duties of our holy religion, and to celebrate the high praises of our God and Saviour, it is most desirable that we should "sing praises with understanding." The following collection of hymns was originally compiled for the use of the General Baptist churches; and in many of them it has long been used. But, as we neither claim nor acknowledge any authority to impose a form, in any part of divine worship, some churches in the Connexion for which it was designed, abstained from the use of this book; principally on account of alterations in some of Dr. Watts's hymns here introduced, lowering the sentiment respecting the proper Deity and sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ. These doctrines have ever been held as vitally important, by the New Connexion of General Baptists; no tenacity therefore was manifested to retain expressions, which might even seem to soften them down below scriptural truth. |