THE Bopedale Collection OF HYMNS AND SONGS, FOR THE USE OF PRACTICAL CHRISTIANS. "I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the COMPILED BY ADIN BALLOU. HOPEDALE, MASS: M DCCC XLIX. PREFACE. This compilation is defective in quantity, quality, adaptation and execution. But it is the best I could prepare under the circumstances. A few years hence it will probably be revised, enlarged, and in various respects improved. I needed more critical ability, leisure and money, in order to bring the work out in a style accordant with my ideal. But considering how necessary something of the kind had become to the friends of Practical Christianity, and how long they must, in all likelihood, wait for a better Hymn Book, I did not feel at liberty to delay its preparation. It has its merits, whatever its defects, and will be useful in its place. I found it so difficult to trace out the authorship of many hymus, that a considerable number are left uncredited. It has been equally difficult to give the pure original text of those which are credited. Many variations and supposed improvements have crept into hymns of the best authors. The original is nearly always deteriorated by these A* |