ADVERTISEMENT. IN preparing the following pages for the press, the works of the various authors whose compositions are inserted in the Wesleyan Hymn-Book, and all the poetical publications of the Rev. John and Charles Wesley, have been carefully examined. Access has also been permitted to unpublished manuscripts, from which several of the Hymns in the Supplement were taken. The Manual is now sent forth in the earnest hope that it may be the means of communicating interesting information to many who love to read and study our inestimable "Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs;" which, especially in the memorable days of early Methodism, have so often "tamed the rudeness of untaught minds, and gained a listening ear for the harmonies of heaven." May they still be sung in our congregations, churches, and families, with grace in the heart, making melody unto the Lord! City-Road, London, JOHN KIRK. INTRODUCTION. THE Wesleys were accustomed to give specific titles to their various hymns, or to divide their volumes into sections, in each of which the hymns corresponded more or less with the general heading. These titles, omitted, in most cases, when the Hymn-Book now in use was prepared,— together with those employed by other writers whose hymns are incorporated, are here collected, and consecutively arranged according to the number and order of each hymn. It will probably be observed, in a few instances, that the hymn, as it appears in the present Collection, has scarcely any perceptible accordance with the title. This arises from the fact, that several verses of the original poem are frequently and very wisely omitted, in order to adapt the composition to more general use; or, that the hymn in question is one of a series, illustrating a particular subject under a variety of aspects. In some of the quotations from Scripture there will be discovered the occasional omission or insertion of a word, the adoption of a marginal reading, or a new rendering of the original expression, creating a slight difference from the texts as they stand in the Authorised Version of our English Bible; but, as these alterations were evidently designed and not accidental, the passages have been invariably copied as they were found at the head of the different hymns. It may be well also to mention, that, as first published, many of the hymns were exceedingly short, comprehending not more than one or two verses: and, in arranging the materials for "such a Hymn-Book as might be generally used in all our congregations throughout Great Britain and Ireland,” Mr. Wesley found it necessary to unite two, or three, and sometimes even four, of these brief compositions into one hymn. Where this was done, the hymns have, in the following pages, been resolved into their primitive parts, and the titles placed in connexion with the verses to which they originally belonged.. |