One Hundred Hymns You Ought To Know

P R E F A C E. FEW things in literature exert a greater power over us than good hymns they are to be counted as amongst the most potent factors in religious nurture. They are to very large numbers of people all that the Hebrew Psalms were to a smaller number. Religious truth, which in the form of syllogism or sermon would have failed to find welcome in the mind, has entered freely and been fully apprehended when presented in the form of the sentiment of hymns and on the wings of their metres. Many a heart, in the trying hour of fear or doubt, has suddenly discovered light on the way, -light radiating from some line or stanza of a hymn that had long lain in memory. The hymns of the English-speaking people have done more to mould their characters than all the sermons spoken or written. Did you ever find yourself repeating over and over a sentence from a book or a sermon, find such a sentence gradually working forward, as it were, from the margin of consciousness to the focus of attention Not often. Yet how frequently have lines and stanzas of hymns thus stolen in on our field of thought, the same truth coming again and again in this manner and every time deepening its impression, its power over the mind and will, and increasing the facility of its entrance. Teachers of men, especially the teachers of the young, fully appreciate the importance of storing the mind with reserves of strength and soul nourishment, with aspirations that lift up the eyes of the heart and ideals that lead. In seeking these sources of soul strength the questions must often occur, First, where may one find them in their noblest and richest form and, Second, in what form will they find readiest admission to the mindand exert the largest and most lasting influence There will be no hesitancy in answering the first by saying that nowhere are there greater riches of the life in the for111 of literature than in the Bible the second question finds answer, both in reason and experience, that the splendid literary riches of the Bible set into the form of our great hymns then find their easiest vehicle into the mind and have their greatest potency. Our hymns are but the old songs of the Hebrew, the aspirations, visions, passions, and inspirations of the great religious teachers resung, set again into the forms to which we are accustomed. Religious truth in the form of hymns is so highly valuable because the hymns are easily learned they are associated usually with inspiring tunes, with melodies often that sing them back again and again to the mind, and because thus storing themselves in memorys treasury they come out automatically, . perhaps, in some hour when the soul is feeling t ssp iritual poverty, a rich asset, to remind the soul of its yet greater unseen resources. We do well then, seeing the power of these hymns, to exercise no little care in the selection of those with which children and youth shall become familiar. This is that which has been in mind in the selection of these Hymns You Ought to Know, the bringing together of at least one hundred of those hymns which may be counted of greatest worth and force on account of their power for spiritual nurture, for character determination. There must be always wide difference of opinion as to what are the very best hymns. But there is certainly one safe test, viz...