FOR

SOCIAL AND PRIVATE WORSHIP,

ALTERED

TO A DEVOTIONAL FORM.

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY WAIT, GREENE, AND co.
T. B. Wait and Son, Printers.
1827.

BV 350 •H85

PREFACE.

THIS small collection of hymns is compiled on a principle somewhat different from any now in use. It was thought that the singing of hymns, being an act of devotion, should, like prayer, be a direct address to the Supreme Being; and that when exercised by a social circle, should be offered in plural language, to signify their joint cooperation. From inattention to these principles, many of the hymns in our best collections, cannot be sung in concert, by many persons of devotional feelings, without a strong sense of impropriety. On this principle the following hymns have been selected; and such alterations have been made as to give them this character. The collection, it is hoped, will be found adapted to social and family worship; and the hymns are reduced to a small number, to make a cheap and portable volume.

A2

HYMNS.

C. M.

1.
1 ALMIGHTY Father, gracious Lord,
Kind guardian of our days;

Our hearts thy mercies would record,
In grateful songs of praise.

2 In life's first dawn, our tender frame
Was thy indulgent care;
Before we could pronounce thy name,
Or breathe our infant prayer.

3 When life hung trembling on a breath, 'T was thine almighty love

That saved us from impending death,
And bade our fears remove.

4 Each rolling year new favors brought
From thy exhaustless store;
But ah! in vain our laboring thought
Would count thy mercies o'er.