ART. IX.-NOTICES OF BOOKS.

The Congregational Hymn and Tune Book, containing the Psalms and Hymns of the General Association of Connecticut, adapted to suitable tunes. New Haven: Published for the General Association, by Durrie & Peck. New York: Mason Brothers. Boston: Whittemore, Niles & Hall.

The appearance of this book is an important way-mark in the progress of that reformation of worship which is now going on in our Congregational Churches. Perhaps it ought rather to be called a restoration; for the psalmody of our Puritan fathers was eminently popular. They had an almost superstitious horror of choirs. Having no liturgy, with ordered responses, the "people's psalm" was to them of double value, as it gave the congregation an essential and attractive part in public worship. Their singing, though possibly not remarkably melodious, was hearty and sonorous; equally acceptable to God and terrible to their enemies.

The ironsided regiments of Cromwell sang the manly though uncouth verses of Sternhold and Hopkins, sometimes marching to battle with the grand chorus of a Psalm. Rouse's hard and crabbed rendering of the Psalms of David" into metre, though recommended by the Long Parliament, and amended and approved by the " Assembly of Divines,' found little favor among the English Puritans, and none in New England; though, as one of the products of the Westminster Assembly, it became and remains to this day, the national liturgy of Scotland. The Pilgrims had brought with them, from Holland to Plymouth, their own Psalm-book, versified by Henry Ainsworth. For the first twenty years after the landing of the Pilgrims, all the churches seem to have used either Ainsworth's version or that of Sternhold and Hopkins. In 1640, when Rouse's version had not yet appeared, the "Bay Psalm-book," prepared by Richard Mather, John Eliot and Thomas Welde, was printed at Cambridge-the first book ever printed in New England. That book appears to have superseded those previously in use, till it was in its turn slowly but completely superseded by Watt's Psalms and Hymns. These immortal lyrics introduced a new era in the psalmody of the English language.

Here we cannot refrain from calling attention to the pregnant fact, that modern psalmody was nurtured in the bosom of Christian democracy. The largest liberty was necessary to develop the true lyrical spirit in the Church. Why is it that Presbyterianism, has, during three centuries, hardly produced a single hymn which is a hymn? It has done many glorious and beneficent things; it has nurtured many great and farreaching minds; it has produced a Knox, a Henderson, a Witherspoon and a Chalmers; it has made a Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms; but it has hardly made one hymn which the Churches delight to sing. Even the Protestant Episcopal Church is fain to receive

its psalms and hymns from those whom it calls schismatics and dissenters. Its collection, expurgated of the contributions of Watts, Doddridge, Dwight and the Wesleys, would be a lean and flimsy affair. Take away from the Prayer-book what it has stolen from the Roman Catholic Church on the one hand, and from "dissenters" (!) on the other, and the residuum would be inconsiderable.

To return the glorious lyrics of Watts were so immeasurably superior to the uncouth versifications previously in use, that new tunes were felt to be necessary to give them due effect. The attempt, however, to adapt Watt's psalms and hymns to new music, was, unhappily, misdirected. The old chorals, at once so chaste and so grand, were dropped; and, as a consequence, congregational singing gradually and almost totally ceased. Many tunes were composed and introduced on purpose to exclude the people from any participation in this part of worship. Choirs became a distinct order in the Church; and often they tyrannized over both pastor and people. New and flashy tunes succeeded each other with strange rapidity; for it was not intended that the people should become familiar with any. The Churches submitted to all this with marvelous tameness, though it was the prevalent feeling that the singing was a frigid and tedious performance. Ninety-nine in every hundred who, as in duty bound, stared at the choir with big eyes and open mouths, if they had been questioned, would have appeared somewhat in the embarrassing predicament of the famous Christopher Sly, in The Taming of the Shrew.

"1st Ser. My Lord, you nod; you do not mind the play. "Sly. Yes, by St. Anne, I do. A good matter.

more of it?

"Page. My Lord, 'tis but begun.

Comes there any

Sly. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, Madam lady; would 'twere done!"

Such was the state of psalmody in our churches not many years ago. Thank God there is a change for the better. Dr. Lowell Mason, Mr. Thomas Hastings, and a few other eminent composers and professors of music, have nobly battled for the liberty of worship; and are now strenuously laboring to undo the mischief which some of their own early productions contributed to extend and perpetuate. At length the majority of pastors and churches, if we mistake not, are thoroughly roused to the importance of the subject; and a brighter day has dawned. In many, perhaps in most congregations, the people's song is again beginning to be heard. Several meritorious collections of congregational tunes have recently appeared. Among these we may mention, with qualified approbation, the Temple Melodies, the Christian Melodies, (Dr. Cheever's,) and the Plymouth Collection. The last indeed has been the object of severe, and, we must reluctantly add, not unmerited criticism. The general verdict of pastors and of churches is clearly pronounced: for the purpose intended, the book is a failure.

The Congregational Hymn and Tune Book is published under the sanction of the General Association of Connecticut. "The labor of pre

paring it," says the preface, "has been performed by Mr. Leonard W. Bacon, a candidate for the ministry,* assisted by wide consultation with pastors, and with persons of skill and experience in Church music." A work published under such auspices, and prepared by a gentleman of acknowledged taste and judgment in this particular department, will at once command the attention of the Christian public. Doubtless its claims to the favor of the churches will be thoroughly scrutinized; but, we believe, it may safely challenge the most rigid criticism.

As a hymn book its period of probation was long since completed; for it is in fact but a new edition of the Connecticut Psalms and Hymns, with a valuable supplement of some fifty hymns superadded. Among these we find several, which by oversight, or otherwise, were omitted in the original edition-for instance, "One there is above all others," "Sweet the moments rich in blessing," "Hail, my ever blessed Jesus," ""Twas on that dark, that doleful night," "I love to steal awhile away," etc. collection is now as complete as it is judicious.

The

But what shall we say of the music? It is high commendation to say that we find absolutely nothing to condemn ;-no profane, trivial, and vulgar melodies, such as disfigure the Plymouth Collection; no operatic and military airs; nothing, in a word, to offend the most sensitive and religious taste. The number of new tunes is happily very limited, much the larger proportion being already thoroughly incorporated into the psalmody of the Church, and closely linked with sacred and devotional associations. In the adaptation of the hymns to music, the utmost care is taken not to divorce the tunes from words which have, by use and want, become identified in the minds of the people. This fundamental principle, in congregational music, may have been violated in a few instances, but we have not been able to find any. The book differs widely in this respect, from the Plymouth Collection. For example, we find on the first page of that book, the favorite psalm, (92, i,) "Sweet is the work, my God, my King," set, not to Hebron, but to Darien a tune utterly unknown and without any extraordinary merit. Bishop Ken's Morning and Evening Hymns, with a few other private and family hymns, are adapted to Hebron, thus in effect excluding that admirable tune from congregational use. Again, Plymouth Collection compels us to sing "Come Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove," in Dedham instead of Mear; "Broad is the road that leads to death," in Wells, while Windham is sent about less congenial business; "Father, whate'er of earthly bliss," in-Naomi ?—no; but in the Rev. Charles Beecher's new tune, Mara; "While Thee I seek, protecting power," bound up for generations with Brattle Street, in Geer; "Lo, what a glorious sight appears," a hymn which can only be sung in the fervid and exulting strains of Northfield—so dear to our fathers-in Metropolis; "There is a fountain filled with blood," not in Dr. L. Mason's inimitable

*Ordained, on the 16th ult., as pastor of the ancient Church in Litchfield,

Conn.

Cowper or Fountain as it is often called, but in that vulgar and profane melody, christened "Amazing Grace;""O for a closer walk with God," in Clarendon, while Balerma is unnaturally married to two or three Roman Catholic and Moravian hymns; "Angel roll the rock away" in Pearl, not only unknown, but worse than worthless for congregational singing, while Pleyel's Hymn is set to "Jesus, lover of my soul." These strange and fatal blunders, besides many others which we have marked, are avoided in the Congregational Tune Book. We are constrained to say that the collection displays a sobriety of judgment, a manly taste, and a discernment of the real wants of the churches, quite remarkable when we consider that the compiler has had little or no experience in the duty of a pastor. The book will, we doubt not, speedily come into general use, and take its proper place as the standard manual of congregational music. It is equally adapted to the family, the prayer meeting, the Sabbath assembly, and special occasions, such as missionary meetings, ordinations, etc. The mechanical execution of the book is creditable to the publishers, though we regret to see a few typographical errors.

In conclusion we most earnestly recommend this work to the notice of pastors. We can confidently assure them that the thing they have so long earnestly desired is here conscientiously, thoroughly, admirably done. A few blemishes will doubtless be discovered; but they will gradually be removed in subsequent editions.

Religion in America; or an account of the origin, relation to the State, and present condition of the Evangelical Churches in the United States. With notices of the unevangelical denominations. BY ROBERT BAIRD. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Dr. Baird's well known work on Religion in America is, in this edition, carefully revised, and its statistics are brought down to the year 1855. Written originally for the purpose of conveying to British and European readers some authentic knowledge concerning the working and success of absolute religious liberty in the United States, it was first published in Scotland, thirteen years ago. A few months afterwards it was republished in New York, and obtained a very considerable circulation here. Within two or three years after its first appearance, it was published in French, German, Swedish, and Dutch translations, and was widely circulated on the continent of Europe. On the subject of which it treats, it is a standard book of reference. Intelligent people in this country, of all religious denominations and professions, need such a book, for however intelligent a man may be respecting the cis-Atlantic history and condition of the particular religious organization with which he is himself connected by inheritance or by choice, he often needs information of that sort respecting other religious bodies. The Presbyterian may have occasion to know something which his own books do not tell him about the ecclesiastical system, and the historic relations of the Baptists; and the Baptist may need to know where the Presbyterians came from, and how strong they are. It may be convenient for the Congregationalist in New England to ascertain something about the German

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Reformed, and the Lutherans, and other Teutonic sects in the West. Even the Episcopalian clergyman, notwithstanding the transcendent height from which so many of that sort look down on all "dissenters," may find use, now and then, for a book of reference which can tell him something about Religion in America, outside of his own communion. We heartily commend the book, in the present improved edition, to all who would be familiarly and accurately acquainted with the cardinal facts of our ecclesiastical history and statistics.

Few men are better qualified than Dr. Baird to collect and digest the materials of such a work as this. Himself a Presbyterian, ecclesiastically connected with the Old School fragment of the Presbyterian sect, his employment for thirty years, and his elective affinities, have brought into the friendliest acquaintance with many of the best men of almost every Evangelical denomination, and have given him opportunity to know the particular type of religious character, and the degree of religious activity, in almost every body of Evangelical churches. At the same time, his repeated visits to the old world, and his official relations to the reviving Protestantism of France and other European countries, have tended to give him a largeness of views and a comprehensiveness of Christian sympathy, quite necessary to the impartial performance of such a work as is attempted in this volume, and, at the same time, quite beyond what might otherwise have been hoped for in a member of the New Brunswick Presbytery.

The aid which the Author acknowledges himself to have received from some of the most competent men in the Congregational and Baptist Churches, in the Dutch Church, the German Reformed, the Lutheran, and the Methodist Episcopal, as well as from his early friend, Dr. Hodge, of the (O. S.) Presbyterian Church, indicates the extent of his advantages and the degree of authority with which his book may testify concerning "Religion in America." One entire chapter-that on "Revivals of Religion"-is distinctly ascribed to Dr. Goodrich of Yale College; and, as our readers will easily believe, there is nowhere to be found a more thorough treatise on that topic. We are sorry to see that a contemporary reviewer*-not satisfied with the gentle admonition which he administered to Dr. Baird, eleven years ago, for the delinquency of permitting a New England theologian to state the familiar and orthodox distinction of Natural and Moral inability, and to show the bearing of that distinction on an effective ministration of the Gospel-rebukes him more sternly now for not being sufficiently narrow in his Princetonism to strike out the obnoxious passage. What the reviewer speaks of with "surprise and disgust," as "the shibboleth of New England Divinity, so called, namely, the metaphysical dogma of Natural Ability," is just what every honest and earnest man must preach, (and if he has the natural ability of good common sense, and the moral ability of a willing and loving human soul, will preach in spite of his scholasticism,) when he finds himself actually engaged in the work of directing awakened

* Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, October, 1856.