PSALMS, HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS, FOR USE IN THE PUBLIC SERVICES OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. COMPILED BY JOHN R. BEARD, D.D., AND JAMES C. STREET. = LONDON: SÍMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., STATIONERS' HALL COURT: MDCCCLX 60 PREFACE. INASMUCH as religion is the central and pervading power of man, devotion, which is religion in aspiration, is the voice of our whole inner nature. As such it is the image of the soul. Being the image of the soul, it reflects the soul's essential qualities,-not less its thoughts than its affections. In consequence devotion takes shape from our intelligence, as well as colour from our sentiments. Only when considered as the utterance of the entire man is devotion either natural or true. Devotion, the produce of the intellect, is not natural nor true; nor is the devotion natural or true which is the offspring of our affections. A predominance in devotion of any side of our complex being destroys its balance, mars its harmony, and unfits it for an offering to the All-perfect God. Hence fidelity to thought no less than to sentiment is requisite in such devotion as man ought to offer, and God is willing to accept. Accordingly the Apostle to the Gentiles wisely determined to sing with the understanding as well as the spirit (1 Cor. xiv. 15), that is, with due regard to the prerogatives of his intelligence, not less than to the impulses of his sentiment. A divorce of the two, as Paul clearly saw in the Gentile religions must be attended with baneful consequences. The devotion which is born of the |