By SIR PHILIP PERRING, BART., late Scholar of CONTENTS. 1. Conformists and Nonconformists. 8. Everlasting Damnation. 10. Passages intheGospels revised. 12. Silver Filings. "It is impossible not to commend the honesty, straight- "Language always thoughtful, and never offensive."- "Much that is earnest, and, we think, well meant, in this "A vigorous book."-Daily Telegraph. "It contains many good things." – British Quarterly. "When the author descends to particulars and gives us his "He will not miss the mark for want of plain speaking.". 6 "He is thoroughly impartial as between Conformists and CONTAINING ORIGINAL HYMNS AND OTHER POEMS, WITH TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ODES OF HORACE, BY SIR PHILIP PERRING, BART., LATE SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, "I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the under- 1 COR. XIV. 15. SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED. BIBLIOTH MAY 80 London: LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. 1880. GODLEIANA 280. 652. PREFACE. To write a long Preface for a little book like the present would be to seem to claim for it a larger amount of attention than it is ever likely to obtain-perhaps, than it deserves. Nevertheless, the Author is not without a hope that it may find its way into the hands of some to whom it may prove both useful and interesting. There is an attractiveness in the Hymn that there is not in the Sermon, and a few short pieces of Sacred Poetry will often be relished where a continuous Discourse would be positively distasteful. I much doubt whether Clergymen, Heads of households, Superintendents of classes, and the like, are fully aware of the power for good that may be exerted by a free use of Hymns in their ministrations and services. Children are notoriously fond of them; the poor and illiterate listen to them gladly; invalids can bear this kind of literature when they can bear no other. Nor must it be forgotten that we have by no means yet a thoroughly good collection of Hymns for congregational use; every one who publishes a volume of Sacred Poetry may indulge the hope that from his, or her, volume may one day be drawn one or two pieces capable of exciting, or at least of expressing, the devotional feelings of thousands. In the matter of doctrine, if I have occasionally allowed myself a freer range than any one of the numerous sects, into which the Church of England is divided, would wittingly and willingly concede to its Ministers, I trust and believe that I have not overstepped those limits which a careful study of Holy Scripture would lead us to conclude that the great Lord of the Universal Church has graciously marked out for us. I have a Hymn for those who are joined together in Holy Matrimony; a Hymn also for those who devote themselves to a religious life in cloister or nunnery. Perhaps, too, at a time when efforts are being made to induce the Clergy to desist from reading in the public services of the Church a Creed, so presumptuously precise in its definitions and distinctions, so daringly dog |