translator has converted into Latin a considerable proportion of our best English hymns, without any wider departure, he trusts, from that standard of Latinity, to which they are conformed, than is usual in similar compositions—a standard of which some explanation and defence is given, in a few paragraphs immediately after the index following this preface. For several years, having had much to do with what may be described, in scriptural words, as 'the outward business of the house of God,' in connection with the extensive Foreign Missions of the United Presbyterian Synod, he has found it a congenial task to devote certain 'odds and ends of time' to devotional poetry, including some of those treasures of Latin sacred song which the Christian Church possessed long before the existence of a single pre-eminent original hymn in the English language. If the question be asked, in reference to these various translations, either from the English, or from the Greek and Latin, cui bono? the writer, without obtruding the history or motives of his little work unnecessarily, may suggest, that it is all, as he believes, fitted to serve, more or less, the purpose of devotional reading, though portions of it be unsuited and undesigned for acts of worship. The Rev. Dr Ray Palmer of New York, in a letter to the translator, has most justly remarked : ‘For reading, not less than ́for singing, hymns should frequently be used; and whatever fixes attention on them must help to extend their usefulness.' Special thanks are due to friends whose services in the form of valuable suggestions, he cannot adequately acknowledge in this preface. He desires, at least, here to record their names -The Rev. Dr R. J. Bryce, Belfast; Dr A. H. Bryce, Edinburgh; The Rev. Dr George Jeffrey, Glasgow; The Rev. Dr William Lindsay Alexander, Edinburgh; and The Rev. Professor John Cairns, D.D., Berwick-upon-Tweed. He would congratulate those interested in hymns on the recent revival experienced in this section of Christian literature. He believes in the intimate affinity between this and the revival of life in the heart of the Church. As a rule, hymns of the higher order are the product, as they form in no limited degree the expression, and, indeed, in subordination to the Psalms, the aliment of earnest Christian life; and hence, 'times of refreshing,' in the history of the Church, have conspicuously been times of fresh accessions to her fittest materials for sacred song. In every respect, therefore, whether viewed as historical monuments, as developments of spiritual life and of Christian creed, or as vehicles of devotion, those songs, which express the common mind and heart of all God's people, are to be hailed as harbingers of better times. H. M. M. EDINBURGH, 9 DOUNE TERRACE, 11th December 1875. |