simply absurd for us to encumber the American edition of the work with matter already accessible to our people at little expense,-matter, too, which has become a thrice-told tale in the course of the controversies, newspaper and other, which have arisen out of the division of the Church. We must, however, say a word or two for the special behoof of Dr. Dixon and our friends in England. He has published, almost in extenso, the most important documents issued on the side of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in this controversy, but has not given one line from those put forth by the friends of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Indeed, so far as we can judge from his own statements, he has not even read these documents at all; and of the reply to the Protest, he expressly says that "he has not seen it." Our British brethren will understand us when we say that it is as if an American traveller, in writing a history of the recent expulsions from the Wesleyan Conference, should take his cue and make his quotations entirely from the "Fly-sheets" and the "Wesleyan Times." We emphasize "entirely," because it would be perfectly right in such a traveller, nay, we think it would be his bounden duty, to read the "Wesleyan Times" as well as the "Watchman," in order to gather fair and just views of the case in question; and so it would, in our opinion, have been entirely proper for Dr. Dixon to read everything that our southern friends have had to say on their side of the Church controversy. But this is a very different thing from a course of reading, thinking, and quoting, so entirely onesided as Dr. Dixon's has been in the present instance.

Yet in all this we do not wish to be understood as finding fault with Dr. Dixon. He has given us a noble, large-minded, warm-hearted testimony, and one which will do more to remove false impressions, and to inspire kind and fraternal feelings toward us among our British brethren, than any book that has yet been written. Already its effects are visible in such passages as the following from the London Watchman, with which we must close this inadequate notice :

"In sober historical fact, American Methodism is the foremost ecclesiastical prodigy since the day of miracles closed. Never has such a number of human beings been brought in a like time to attach themselves, by their sole free choice, to a particular form of Christianity, without any one impulsion from State will, or public authority. It stands at this day the largest Church of voluntary members in all the Protestant world. Where national law has given to a particular form of religion all the children of a nation, or the children of all parents who led not their offspring to a special choice, there we find more numerous enrolments than the Methodist Episcopal Church has to exhibit; but, in the entire round of what begin to be called "Free Churches,'-Churches where free choice alone has led to adherence, we find no body equalling in numbers that which, less than a century ago, took its rise from the obscure labours of an emigrant female, and an emigrant Local Preacher.

*

*

*

*

*

*

"The whole effect of that most interesting portion of this noble book, is to leave upon the mind a happy and elevated sense of the power of Christianity, which has in so short a time, and among a people so active, carried vital piety over such a prodigious territory, and fortified it with such a glorious host of disciples, and such an array of subsidiary institutions. On the other hand, it will inevitably lead English Methodists to search why it is that we, acting on a denser population, have not reached to more than one-third the number of our American brethren. Here is ground for speculation to those who love to speculate, and ground of incitement to those who think it better to labour."

ART. IX. THE NEW HYMN-BOOK.

Hymns for the Use of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Revised Edition. New York: Lane & Scott, 200 Mulberry-street. 1849.

WE can now honestly and joyfully congratulate the Methodist Episcopal Church on the possession of the best collection of Hymns, for Public, Social, and Private Worship, in existence. There may be others larger, though of this we doubt; others which are better specimens of poetry, (and of this we are by no means certain ;) but as a collection of Hymns to be sung in the congregation, in point of spirituality, purity, good taste, Scriptural character, brevity, and earnest devotion, this book is, we sincerely believe, unsurpassed. That it will meet at once with universal welcome, is not to be expected. Many will doubtless be distressed at the loss of favourite hymns, associated in their minds with a thousand blessed recollections; many will be surprised to find hymns sacred to them in one form reproduced in another; many will regret the difference of arrangement, even though the advantage be as great in favour of the book as between a dictionary of words thrown together helter-skelter and one alphabetically arranged. But when these first impressions have subsided, and the unequalled merits of the new book, in point of breadth of scope, skilfulness of arrangement, adaptation to popular use, and thorough Wesleyan as well as Scriptural character, come to be fully known, all objections will be done away, and the originators of the new Hymn-book, with all concerned in its preparation, will be blessed as benefactors to the Church in supplying one of her highest wants, and aiding in one of the highest of her acts of worship.

The deficiencies of our Hymn-book have been felt for many years, and many schemes for its improvement have been set afloat in private circles; but the first public proposition, so far as we know, for a complete revision of the book, was put forth in an able article, written by Dr. Floy, on the "Methodist Hymn-Book," in the number of this Journal for April, 1844. To that article we refer for an exposition of the necessary elements of a good Hymn, and for the essential requisites of a good Hymn-book. It is a most searching, just, and appreciative article;—such, indeed, as no man could have written who was not possessed at once of a cultivated taste and a thorough knowledge of the subject. It elicited a great deal of discussion, in the Christian Advocate and Journal and in the Zion's Herald, from various writers; in which discussion it was made apparent that many minds in different quarters had been simultaneously at work upon the subject. No one, however, showed a more complete knowledge of Wesleyan Hymns, and indeed of the whole subject, than David Creamer, Esq., of Baltimore, whose valuable volume on Hymnology was the ripe fruit of long years of labour and study. In the mean time, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, prepared and published its new Hymn-Book, in which many of the suggestions made in Dr. Floy's article and in the newspaper criticisms were carried into effect. By the time of the session of the General Conference of 1848, at Pittsburgh, the public mind was ready for action on the subject; and that body, accordingly, at an early period of its session, took it up for consideration. We quote from the Journal:

"May 2, on motion of J. Floy, it was resolved that a committee of seven be appointed, to take into consideration the revisal of the Hymn-Book of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and report whether they deem any improvement necessary."

P. 12.

On the next day the Committee was announced to consist of C. Elliott, M. Simpson, W. Hosmer, J. Floy, David Patten, G. F. Brown, and Nelson Rounds. On the 6th of May this Committee presented a report, which, after considerable debate, was slightly amended, and then adopted by a large majority of votes, as follows:

"The Committee to whom was referred the subject of revising the Hymn-Book, respectfully report that in their opinion such revision ought to be made; and from the best information before them, they believe it to be the general impression among our people that this General Conference will provide for such revision. The Book Committee at New-York, consisting of representatives from the New-York, the Philadelphia, and the New-Jersey Conferences, associated with our official Editors, unite in requesting such revision; and we have before us a resolution, adopted with great unanimity by the Genesee Conference, requesting this Conference to take immediate measures for this object. At the same time, your committee are deeply impressed with the absolute necessity of intrusting such revision to those who will make it with good taste and sound judgment. We present, therefore, for the consideration of this body, the following resolutions:

"1. Resolved, That this Conference appoint a committee of seven, to whom shall be intrusted the duty of preparing a revised edition of our standard Hymn-Book. "2. Resolved, That when said committee shall have finished their labours, the result shall be submitted to the Editors and Book Committee, at New-York, and the Bishops; and when approved by them, the new Hymn-Book shall be published at our Book Concerns, simultaneously, at New-York and Cincinnati.

"3. Resolved, That all expenses necessarily incurred by the Committee in making this revision be defrayed by the Book Agents."-P. 25.

And on the 23d of May the laborious task of revising the Hymn-book was laid upon seven brethren, selected from different portions of our work, with special reference to their fitness for the duty, consisting of five preachers and two laymen, namely:-David Dailey, Philadelphia Conference; J. B. Alverson, Genesee Conference; James Floy, New-York Conference; David Patten, jr., Providence Conference; F. Merrick, Ohio Conference; Robert A. West, of Brooklyn, and David Creamer, of Baltimore.

The Committee commenced their labours on the 8th of August, 1848, and have only completed them, by the passage of the final proof-sheets through the press, within the last few weeks. Repeated meetings of the full committee were held, at which every hymn, and indeed every stanza in the book, came under separate and careful examination. No men ever worked harder in the time than did these unpaid labourers for the Church of Christ. Besides the critical investigation of separate hymns, there were new hymns to be added, the whole were to be arranged on a just system under proper heads, separate titles were to be furnished for each, the authors' names to be affixed, where they could be traced by any exercise of ingenuity and industry, and indexes to be made to the entire work. Any one conversant with literary labour will see that a vast task was here laid out, and that none but men familiar with the subject from long investigation could execute it within a reasonable time. As the members of the committee lived at remote distances from each other, the Rev. James Floy, D. D., and R. A. West, Esq., were appointed a sub-commit

tee, to digest the labours of the whole committee, to suggest new hymns, and to prepare the work for the press. It is no disparagement to the other able and industrious members of the committee to say, that from the very necessity of the case, the chief burden of toil fell upon these two brethren, and that to them the Church is greatly indebted for the perfection of the new Hymnbook. We cannot set forth the extent and the result of their labours better than by stating, briefly, the characteristic points of excellence in our new Collection.

1. The first point to which we would call attention is the number of the hymns. In the old book, including the Supplement, there were six hundred and ninety-seven hymns; in the new, there are eleven hundred and forty-eight, besides the seventy-nine Sunday-School Hymns in the Supplement. It was long ago remarked by an eminent divine, that "too great a variety of evangelical hymns for public worship is a thing scarcely conceivable." In the new book this variety is secured, not so much by an enlargement of the bulk of the work—a result sedulously guarded against by the Committee-as by a judicious retrenchment of superfluous verses, by the omission of many hymns of inferior value, (especially those from un-Wesleyan sources,) and by the division of those of undue length into two hymns, or even, in extraordinary cases, into three. This was a most delicate, as well as most laborious, task; but, although we have followed the Committee with a close scrutiny, and, we must confess, with not a little jealous fear lest they should go too far, we must say, fully and freely, that we are not more surprised than delighted with the singular success of their labours. One feature deserves special remark. The old Hymn-book was overloaded, to an extent which those who have not examined the matter will hardly credit, with hymns in particular metres. More than one-eighth of the book was in six lines eights, and nearly one-sixth was in the different varieties of sevens;-indeed, of the former class there were more than of either Common, Long, or Short-metre Hymns. Now, as nine-tenths of the singing in our churches is done in these last metres, a great part of the book was almost absolutely useless for public worship; yet many of these hymns were in an exalted strain of poetry, and almost every phase of religious experience is illustrated in them, taken as a whole. The Committee have succeeded in preserving many of the best of these, and yet obviating the difficulty of metre, by changing the most difficult into Long, Short, and Common Metres. This delicate work was executed, we deem it right to say, entirely by Dr. Floy, and how well it was done can be seen by a few examples:-e. g., Hymn 210 of the old book (7s and 6s) changed to Short Metre in Hymn 90 of the new; Hymn 208 of old book similarly changed in 97 of the new:-a happier alteration still, in the alteration of Hymn 24 from sevens and sixes to Common Metre in Hymn 414 of the new book. Hymn 449, also, affords a good specimen of six lines eights altered to Long Metre. These instances might be multiplied, but space is not afforded to us.

2. The arrangement of the hymns was one of the most difficult tasks devolved upon the sub-committee. The new table of Contents embodies a clear, progressive, and scientific outline of Christian Theology in its relations to church worship:

But besides the adoption of a general division, the harder task remained of classifying the several hymns under their appropriate heads. This has been so well and thoroughly done, that hardly any difficulty will exist in finding a hymn suited to almost any subject within the range of the pulpit, or to almost any occasion in which singing is introduced. We trust that our friends will give ample study to the new arrangement. It only needs careful investigation to secure approval.

each hymn, is another The advantage of this The only question is,

3. The prefixing of a brief and condensed title to point in which the new book is far superior to the old. is so obvious, that but a word need be said about it. whether the titles are apt, just, and comprehensive; and here, too, we have followed the Committee carefully through the proof-sheets, and have no verdict to render but that of unqualified commendation. We fear that this part of the labour performed by the Sub-Committee will never be duly appreciated— none, perhaps, but those who have tried to do the same thing can imagine how much time and toil must have been expended in framing suitable titles for eleven hundred and twenty-nine hymns.

4. The decidedly Wesleyan character of the collection is, for us, one of its strongest recommendations. By far the greater proportion of the newly introduced hymns are pure gold from the mint of CHARLES WESLEY; and, if we have counted correctly, six hundred and four out of the eleven hundred