THE CHILD'S CHRISTIAN YEAR: HYMNS FOR EVERY SUNDAY AND HOLY-DAY, COMPILED FOR THE USE OF PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. THOU SHALT SHEW THY SON IN THAT DAY, SAYING, THIS IS DONE BECAUSE OF THAT WHICH THE LORD DID UNTO ME. EXODUS xiii. 8. OXFORD, JOHN HENRY PARKER; AND 377, STRAND, LONDON. M DCCC XLIX. THIS Compilation pretends to no more than to be one among many humble, but it is trusted not unavailing efforts, which are now being made in different quarters, to bring the whole body of our Church's teaching more into unison with the tone of her Prayer Book, and by consequence with that of the Ancient Universal Church. Besides its direct devotional use, and the positive instruction to be gleaned from it, the air and manner of the compositions preferred in it are such as may perhaps be found not ill-calculated gradually to raise and purify the standard by which the poor judge of religious poetry. The word Hymn, in their minds, has been too long a associated with productions both in doctrine and manner very unworthy of that sacred name. It will be something, if in only one parish, we can pre-occupy the minds and ears of the young with strains of a somewhat higher mood; such as may prove of real use and comfort to them, when recalled to their memories, in whole or in part, by the events of their after life; such as they may dwell on continually, and find deeper and deeper meanings in them as they grow older, and consult their own consciences more. The subject is perhaps not quite proper to be touched on in the Preface to such a work, yet it may be worth suggesting, whether attention to this part of education may not do much, under God's blessing, towards preparing another generation for something like a revival of Discipline;-the only Church Reform which can really deserve the name;-as things are at present to speak of such a thing sounds almost like talk in a dream: yet if the well-disposed of our young people were trained up in the tone of the Ancient Church, were taught to sympathize with her, and to look to her for sympathy, the spirit of discipline, it would seem, could not fail to revive, and what are now mere forms would again take to themselves power. This little book may be regarded as an experiment on a very small scale, tending, however remotely, towards that good end. Hursley, Nov. 6, 1841. J. K. |