FOR SCHOOL WORSHIP COMPILED BY M. A. WOODS HEAD MISTRESS OF THE CLIFTON HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1890 PREFACE IN compiling the following hymns, I have been guided by the belief that hymns for common worship, and especially for school worship, should be bright rather than sad, simple rather than complex, devotional rather than doctrinal or didactic. Most of the hymns chosen may, I think, be described as of this character. But the book is not intended for children only, and it could not have been as comprehensive as I wished it to be had I excluded all hymns marked by a special seriousness, or by superficial difficulties connected with changes in language, or by a somewhat unusual emphasis of the belief at the root of their aspiration. Even if it should be thought that hymns so characterised are better fitted for reading at home than for singing at school, I shall not regret a decision which may suggest a twofold use of my little volume, and plead for its acceptance, at least with its older readers, not as a schoolbook only, but as a personal companion and friend. A second object I have had in view has been a somewhat higher literary standard than is usual in compilations of this kind, and a large proportion of the hymns chosen are by authors (chiefly of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) well known as poets apart from their hymns. Wherever possible, I have given the exact words of the original, but I have never hesitated to shorten a hymn so as to bring it within the required limits whether of length or intention, and I have in a very few cases ventured to break up a continuous poem into stanzas. I have purposely not given tunes, thinking these should be left to individual discretion, but I hope, on some future occasion, to mention those which have been found most suitable in the case of my own school. A list at the end of the volume, drawn up chiefly with a view to Church schools, gives the hymns most appropriate to the various Christian seasons. For the use of copyright hymns, I have to express my acknowledgments to The Very Rev. the Dean of Wells (for Nos. 11 and 29). The Rev. S. Baring-Gould (for No. 91). Professor F. T. Palgrave (for No. 22). Mrs. Alexander (for No. 27). The Misses Thring (for Nos. 19 and 59, by the late Rev. Edward Thring). The Proprietors of "Hymns Ancient and Modern" (for No. 28, by the late Rev. Sir Henry Baker). The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (for No. 82, by Miss A. L. Waring). Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co. (for No. 89, by His Eminence the late Cardinal Newman, and Nos. 62 and 93, by the late Miss Catherine Winkworth). Messrs. Nisbet and Co. (for No. 84, by the late Rev. H. Bonar, D.D.) Messrs. Masters (for No. 91, by the late Rev. J. M. Neale, D.D.) Messrs. Hayes (for No. 43, by the late Rev. J. M. Neale, D.D.) CLIFTON, September 1890. M. A. WOODS. |