Excerpt from The Church Hymnal: Revised to Conform to the Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America

There can be little doubt that the most important act of legislation of the last General Convention was that which gave to the Church a new Hymnal. Whether the time had fully come for compiling such a Hymnal as, if adopted, the Church would probably use for a score of years; and whether the Hymnal adopted was the best that could be compiled, even at the present time, are questions upon which there is, and reasonably, a wide difference of opinion. But without question there was need of some action toward uniformity; and there are few persons in the Church who will not be grateful both to the members of the Hymnal Committee for their faith ful labours, and to the Convention for giving _us the Hymnal, even With its imperfections. We should bear in mind that what are imperfections in the eyes of one, alone gives value to the book in the eyes of another. So let the Church use the book. This will be the best test of its merits.

To aid in such use, this musical edition is submitted to the Church. The editor in presenting it would gratefully acknowledge the favour with which his former Church Hymnal was received, and express the hope that the present work may be found in all respects better than the other. The portions of the former work that proved their value are retained in this; those which have not been found serviceable are dropped.

With the substance of the new Hymnal before him since December, 1870, the editor has had ample time to exercise care in the selection of music; and with few exceptions, every tune in this Hymnal has had its merits and adaptability thoroughly tested. Free use has been made of all the leading English Hymnals, by which the richness of the music of this collection is largely increased.

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