arise," that by Montgomery, "Spirit, leave thy house of clay," that by Wesley, "Happy soul, thy days are ended," Newton's, "In vain our fancy strives to paint," that majestic hymn by Turner, on Christ seen of angels, "Beyond the starry skies," and that by Kelly, on the same theme, "Jesus comes, his conflict over,”—that easter hymn, "Angel, roll the rock away," those three stanzas from Rippon, "As when in silence, vernal showers,"-but we must not proceed. Let any curious reader who has any special interest in the inquiry, pursue it for himself. Let him make out at his leisure an index of the hymns in the Connecticut collection, which are not contained in the Sabbath Hymn-Book; and then let him judge for himself whether, considering how dear so many of these have become by long familiarity, it was wise to reject them for the sake of something newer. "Should auld acquaintance be forgot," even for the sake of the latest importation from the manse of Kelso? Old hymns are like old friends, the more valued and loved for the old memories that cluster around them. They are like old wine, the better for being old. "No man having drunk old wine, straightway desireth new, for he saith, the old is better." We do not forget that our Andover compilers value their book for the number of old hymns which they have collected from what we may call the pre-Wattsian ages,-pre-Wattsianism being, in psalmody and hymnody, very much what preRaphaelitism is in painting. But the misfortune is not only that the oldest of those old hymns is not so old as the psalms which they displace-not so old by some two thousand years as the ninetieth Psalm; but also that their very antiquity is novelty. Old as they are in one sense, they are not old acquaintances they are new to those who are to use the book. When the reader looks in vain for those old hymns on the resurrection and the judgment-old to him because so long familiar to his thoughts, "Lord, I commit my soul to thee," "Lo! I behold the scattering shades,"-" Methinks the last great day is come," and "Lo! he comes with clouds descending,"--his disappointment is not relieved by his being told, "Here is something older than all of them, a hymn of the seventh century, the germ of the Dies ira; and here is a hymn of the eleventh century, the Dies ira itself, abridged and translated." He will naturally reply, "These are not what I mean by old, they are new, the very newest thing in the market." Or if he looks for that well known sacramental hymn by Watts, "Jesus invites his saints,"-and does not find it, the substitution of a hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas, in the place of it, does not supply the deficiency. The translation from the medieval Latin, though beautiful, is not old but new; and though Watts stands in the chronological tables more than four centuries later than "the angelic doctor" of the schoolmen, his hymns (and not the angelic doctor's) are the old hymns which our churches love. The new form in which some familiar and favorite pieces are reproduced by the Andover compilers, is an error of the same sort. Montgomery's version of the 91st Psalm is familiar to those who use the Connecticut book, and is reproduced in the Andover book. Observe the difference: CONNECTICUT PSALMS AND HYMNS. "Call Jehovah thy salvation, Rest beneath the Almighty's shade, In his secret habitation, Dwell, nor ever be dismayed: "From the sword at noonday wasting, From the noisome pestilence, In the depth of midnight blasting, God shall be thy sure defense; Fear not thou the deadly quiver, When a thousand feel the blow; Mercy shall thy soul deliver, Though ten thousand be laid low. "Since, with pure and firm affection, He will hearken, he will save, SABBATH HYMN BOOK. "Call the Lord thy sure salvation, Rest beneath the Almighty's shade, In his secret habitation, Dwell and never be dismayed! "There no tumult can alarm thee, Thou shalt dread no hidden snare; Guile nor violence shall harm thee, In eternal safeguard there. "Thee, though winds and waves are swelling, God, thy hope shall bear through all; Plague shall not come nigh thy dwelling, Thee no evil shall befall. "He shall charge his angel legions Watch and ward o'er thee to keep, Though thou walk through hostile regions, Though in desert wilds thou sleep. "Since, with pure and firm affection, The difference between these two is chiefly in the selection of lines or stanzas from the original copy. The first simply omits two of Montgomery's five stanzas, the other selects five half stanzas. But the following is an instance of another sort. Newton's hymn,-" Glorious things of thee are spoken "-consists of five stanzas, of which three are given in the Connecticut book unchanged, except in the last of the three, where the author made manna rhyme with banner, after a style of pronunciation sometimes heard from school-boys, and always offensive to a correct ear. In this form it is familiar to the churches of Connecticut, and is a favorite hymn. He who looks for it in the Sabbath Hymn Book, thinks he has found it, for the first line is in the index; but when he reads, he is confounded with a difference, as follows: CONNECTICUT psalms and HYMNS. "Glorious things of thee are spoken, What can shake thy sure repose? "See, the streams of living waters, And all fear of want remove : Ever flows thy thirst t' assuage? Grace, which, like the Lord the giver, Never fails from age to age. "Round each habitation hovering, See the cloud and fire appear! For a glory and a covering, Showing that the Lord is near :He who gives them daily manna, He who listens when they cry,— Let him hear the loud hosanna Rising to his throne on high." Yet the Sabbath Hymn Book credits its recension of this hymn to Newton, without any hint that it has been altered. But the question here is not so much why they neglected to give notice of the alteration, as why they made such alteration. The change in this instance, as in some others, seems to have been made capriciously, perhaps for some occult musical reason. Doubtless, the altered hymn is good, though tame compared with the other copy, but the alteration jars upon the nerves of those to whom the hymn in the other form is old and familiar. Almost any alteration in a hymn gives offense, if it is a deviation from the reading which has become familiar by use. It is on this principle that a restoration of the original reading is sometimes more offensive than almost any other change.* Having said so much-much more than we intended, on the questionable features of the work before us, we will not close without renewing our testimony to its merit as a whole. We have no sympathy with the attacks which have been made upon it from some quarters. In all our examination of it, we have discovered nothing really offensive to a healthy taste, nothing to justify the complaints which we understand have been made against its orthodoxy. We have no doubt that the ministers and the congregations that adopt it, however they may be disappointed at first, will learn to like it; nor that it will ultimately be acknowledged as a valuable contribution to "the service of song in the house of the Lord." One of the alterations censured on p. 50, is, if we mistake not, simply a restoration. Without being able to consult any copy known to be authentic, we are confident that Wesley wrote, "And deeply on my thoughtful [not thoughtless] heart Our reviewer is exceedingly accurate and thorough; but no carefulness that does not actually inspect the very first edition of a hymn with various readings, can be absolutely certain which of the many readings is the original. ARTICLE III.-ROMAN CATHOLIC CONTRIBUTIONS AND MISSIONS. Annales de l'Association de la Propagation de la Foi. Recueil périodique des lettres des évêques et des missionnaires des missions des deux mondes, et de tous les documens relatifs aux missions, et a l'œuvre de la propagation de la foi. Tomes I-XXV. Lyon et Paris. WE have placed at the head of this Article the title of the official publication of one of the most efficient of the associa tions among the Roman Catholics for the propagation of their religious faith, in order to make our readers acquainted with the principles and mode of operation of the society whose proceedings are detailed in these volumes, and to some extent with the results which have been accomplished through its means. Possibly something may be learned from this survey, which may be of use to those who are interested in the great benevolent associations of the Protestant world. The society whose operations are here detailed was organized at the city of Lyons, in France, in the year 1822, and has for its name "L' Association de la Propagation de la Foi," and has published from the commencement a yearly report, similar in its plan to "The Missionary Herald," "The Home Missionary," and other like serial publications of our own societies, containing principally letters from missionaries in different parts of the world. As these reports have an official character and are primarily intended for the information of those who have contributed to the funds of the association, and have passed through more than one edition, there is no reason for doubting their general correctness in matters of fact, and we accept them as a faithful representation of the operations of the society.* We were recently told by one of the conductors of a prominent journal, that some years since he procured this series of volumes, for the purpose of publishing from time to time such information as he should find in them, and which he |