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Gospel Melodies

New and Old

FOR USE IN THE

UNIVERSALIST CHURCH

Chester Gore Miller
Editor

BOSTON

Universalist Publishing house

1904

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NOTICE. Nearly all of the pieces in this Collection, both words and music, are copyright in the
United States, Great Britain and Provinces, under the provisions of the International
Copyright Law, and must not be reprinted or published for any purpose whatever, without the written per
mission of the owners thereof.
THE PUBLISHERS.

Preface.

HIS HYMNAL has been compiled expressly for use in the Universalist Church and with the sole purpose of intensifying the evangelical spirit of the denomination. It

has been designed to supplement the existing Universalist hymnals in the services of Conventions, Conferences, Morning and Evening Congregations and Young People's Christian Union Societies.

With the exception of a few standard hymns included to make the work quite ample in its general use, the book is made up of that class of compositions commonly known as the "Gospel Hymns." Of these, the choicest of the older collections and the best of the new have been included. Without exception, all of the pieces are singable and easily learned. The hymnal contains no experiments or difficult music and has no compositions arranged for particular occasions or for special features of church liturgy, although a few solos and pieces especially adapted to the needs of the choir have been introduced.

The text has been carefully revised so that no expressions will be found to run counter to the accepted doctrines of the Universalist Church.

It should be remembered, however, that these hymns are not professions of faith but confessions of experience, of vision and of need, and they are to be sung, not in the spirit of theological enquiry, but with a devotion born of the religious sentiments.

These productions are expressions of the inner life and display a sublime faith in the Fatherhood of God, the leadership of Jesus and the certainty of Divine revelation and inspiration. It is the peculiar function of these imperishable melodies to emphasize man's dependence on God through Jesus Christ, and denominational history bears out the statement that they are powerful dynamics to this end.

Whatever arguments may be advanced in favor of an exclusive use in congregational worship of the classically standard church compositions, these "Gospel Hymns" have a distinct psychological value with the Christian congregation which the standard hymn does not possess. These melodies are evangelical and loved. They inspire a willingness to serve the Master and with a degree of success not attained by music of more formal character.

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