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out a list of hymns which he found peculiarly helpful as customary and companion-aids in times of spiritual need. He said :

In my list of hymns I do not include such hymns or religious poems as may have deeply touched my sympathy and even expressed my feelings, but yet at the same time have not been the means of lifting me above myself into the region of faith or hope, or in any way of strengthening me against my moods of despondency or weakness.

One eminent philosopher excused himself from contributing on grounds characteristically stated in the following letter:

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DEAR SIR, I fear I shall be unable to aid you in the undertaking described in your letter of the 11th. My own experience furnishes no examples of the kind you wish. If parents had more sense than is commonly found among them, they would never dream of setting their children to learn hymns as tasks. With me the effect was not to generate any liking for this or that hymn, but to generate a dislike for hymns at large. The process of learning was a penalty, and the feeling associated with that penalty became a feeling associated with hymns in general. Hence it results that I cannot name any "hymn that has helped me."— Faithfully yours, HERBERT SPENCER.

On the other hand, Mr. Mark Whitwell, the wellknown citizen and philanthropist of Bristol, sends me a list of twenty-three hymns, all of which he committed to memory before he was four years of age. He

writes:

I really enjoyed learning them; it was a real pleasure to me, partly because it gave my father so much pleasure to hear me repeat them.

For my own part, I will gladly take my turn with the rest in testifying, conscious though I am that the hymn which helped me most can lay no claim to pre-eminent merit as poetry. It is Newton's hymn, which begins, "Begone, unbelief." I can remember my mother singing it when I was a tiny boy, barely able to see over the

book-ledge in the minister's pew; and to this day, whenever I am in doleful dumps, and the stars in their courses appear to be fighting against me, that one doggerel verse comes back clear as a blackbird's note through the morning mist:

His love in time past

Forbids me to think
He'll leave me at last
In trouble to sink.

Each sweet Ebenezer

I have in review
Confirms his good pleasure
To help me quite through.

The rhyme is bad enough, no doubt; the logic may or may not be rational; but the verse as it is, with all its shortcomings, has been as a life-buoy, keeping my head above the waves when the sea raged and was tempestuous, and when all else failed. What that verse has been to me, other verses have been to other men and other women. And what I have tried to do in this Penny Hymnal" is to collate from the multitudinous record of diversified human experience the hymns which have helped most, in order to present them with some record of how, and where, and when, and whom they have helped, as a compendious collection for the use of every one.

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I have to express my indebtedness to many friends and helpers of all sorts and conditions of men and women who have communicated with me on the subject of" Hymns that have Helped." The books which have been most helpful are Julian's monumental "Dictionary of Hymns," Horder's " Hymn-Lover," Duffield's" English Hymns," Marson's "Psalms at Work," Dr. Ker's "The Psalms in History and Biography," and Stevenson's "Notes on the Methodist Hymn Book."

I have also to acknowledge my indebtedness to the following authors or owners of copyright hymns for permission kindly given to use them in this collection:

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To the Rev. S. Baring-Gould for "Onward, Christian Soldiers; " to the representatives of the late Dean Alford for the use of "Forward be our Watchword; " to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge for the use of the Rev. J. E. Bode's hymn, "O Jesu, I have promised," and the Rev. J. E. Ellerton's "Now the labourer's task is o'er; to Mrs. Blackie for Prof. Blackie's hymn, "Angels holy, high and lowly;" to the Right Rev. Bishop of Exeter, Dr. Bickersteth, for his hymn, "Peace, perfect peace; to the Rev. Father Neville for permission to use Cardinal Newman's hymn, "Lead, kindly Light;" to Dr. Matheson for his hymn, "O Love that will not let me go; to Canon Twells for "At Even, ere the Sun was set; to Messrs. James Nisbet and Co. for kindly consenting to the use of several of the late Dr. Bonar's hymns, as well as a hymn by Miss Havergal; to Mr. Wm. Isbister for the late Dr. Macleod's hymn, "Courage, Brother, do not stumble;" to Mrs. Linnæus Banks, for a poem by her late husband; to Messrs. Morgan and Scott for seven hymns from "Sacred Songs and Solos;" to Messrs. Burns and Oates for certain of the Latin translations given in the earlier part of this collection; and finally to Mr. Herbert Booth, for his hymn, " Blessed Lord, in Thee is Refuge."

I hope I may be pardoned if, in spite of all efforts to discover the owners of copyright, I have unwittingly infringed any copyright, or failed to acknowledge my indebtedness for the use of these hymns.

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THE Te Deum properly stands first in any collection of Hymns that Helped. For it is the most catholic of hymns, one of the oldest and one of the most universally used by the entire Western Church. What God Save the Queen has been for a century or more to modern England, the Te Deum has been to Christendom, divided and undivided, for more than a thousand years. It was chanted at the baptism of Clovis, and it was sung at the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. It was in regular use as a Sunday morning hymn in the beginning of the sixth century, and it was chanted the other day at the coronation of Nicholas II. at Moscow. No other hymn of praise has been by such universal consent set apart as the supreme expression of the overflowing gratitude of the human heart. According to the precise ritual of the Roman Church, it must be sung at the three supreme acts of solemn worship,the Consecration of a Bishop, the Coronation of a King, and the Consecration of a Virgin. To these have been added others, - the Election of a Pope, the Canonization of a Saint, the publication of a Treaty of Peace, or the conclusion of a Treaty of Alliance in favour of the Church. It has from of old figured in our coronation service, and whenever the national heart is stirred by some great deliverance by hard-won victory on sea or land, or by the recovery of some beloved

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