PREFACE

TO THE

ENLARGED EDITION.

THE Hymns, Original and Selected, which are interspersed through this Edition, appear before the Religious Public with no higher ambition than of being, in some measure, of the humble and happy FAMILY, which, through the astonishing goodness of the God of Providence and Grace, have met the favourable acceptance of more than

TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND PERSONS, chiefly in this country; saying nothing of the numerous Editions through which the Work has passed in America.* This circumstance,

Just after the first edition of this Preface was printed, Í received a pleasing letter from Philadelphia, informing me of the good acceptance of the Selection in America, and of the

.not.

unless "myself is to myself unknown," I canI dare not presume to mention, but with deep humility, and with unfeigned gratitude, in His presence with whom are the issues of all our endeavours to promote his glory. And should he be pleased, in his infinite condescension, yet to grant it a portion of the gracious notice with which he has to this day honoured the former Editions, his glory shall be mingled with every Hosanna of the remaining station of the Wilderness; and then, with all the Hallelujahs of Saints and Angels in the Land of Songs, for ever.

glorious work of the blessed Spirit in the American Churches. The following is an Extract :

...T

"Your Selection of Hymns, apart from the Arrangement, has been dispersed through our States;—about

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND.

"It will afford you pleasure to know that Mr. Clark's stereotype edition of your Watts Arranged, and Rippon's Hymns, meets with such acceptance, and has so great circulation in this country. Mr. C. has just printed, in one volume, 4,700 copies of both.

"There are very great revivals of religion in numerous parts of the country among almost all the various denominations of Christians, but especially among the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists. Large additions have been made to the latter during the present year. One Association in Kentucky, in the year ending in August, has received an accession of more than 2,600 Members. One Minister, in Georgia, has baptized more than 300 this year. The number of regular Calvinistic Baptists, in the United States, is about 275,900.

Ministers 2,800.

The number of Churches 3,900, and of

And now, in the language of a former Preface, With all the solemnity of an entire Dedication, I commit the volume to Thy care, patronage, and special blessing, O thou infinitely beautiful and bountiful Being! to whom I am, of all the sons of Adam, peculiarly indebted; beseeching thee, for the sake of my crucified and exalted Redeemer, to graut, "That however weak and contemptible this "work may seem in the eyes of the children "of the world, and however imperfect it really

may be, as well as the author of it unworthy; "it may, nevertheless, live before thee, and, "through a divine power, be mighty" to lessen the miseries and to increase the holiness and bliss of multitudes, "in distant places, and "in generations yet to come! Impute it not "O God, as a culpable ambition, if I desire "that, whatever becomes of my name, this "work may be propagated far abroad; that "it may reach to those who are yet unborn, "and teach them thy name and thy praise, "when the author has long dwelt in the dust; "that so, when he shall appear before thee in "the great day of final accounts, his joy may "be increased, and his crown brightened, by "numbers before unknown to each other and "to him! But if this petition be too great to "be granted to one who pretends no claim to "hope for being favoured with the least, give

"him to be, in thine almighty hand, the blessed "instrument of converting and saving one soul; "and if it be but one, and that the meanest "and weakest of all the human race, though "it should be amidst a thousand disappoint"ments with respect to others, yet it shall be "the subject of immortal songs of praise to "thee, O blessed God, for and by every soul "whom, through the blood of Jesus, and the

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grace of thy Spirit, thou hast saved; and "everlasting honours shall be ascribed to the "Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, by the innumerable company of angels, and "by the general assembly, and the church of "the first-born in heaven.

Amen."

JOHN RIPPON.

A TABLE

TO FIND ANY HYMN BY THE FIRST LINE Of it.