THE GREAT HYMNS
OF
THE CHURCH
Their Origin and Authorship
BY
REV. DUNCAN MORRISON, M.A.
OWEN SOUND, CANADA
===========
TORONTO
HART & COMPANY
1890
Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine by HART & COMPANY, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture.
PREFACE.
THESE notes on the Great Hymns of the Church are the result of the author’s observations on the subject for years. He believes that our people in the public service would sing with the spirit and the understanding in a far higher degree, did they know more about their hymns; and that if any one would undertake simply to tell the story of each of them – giving some account of its origin and authorship, he would render them no small service, even if he should only succeed in awakening a deeper interest in the service of song, and calling forth some more competent laborer to enter the same field.
He had originally intended to confine himself in his annotations to twelve of the Great Hymns and presenting them in the shape of a series of contributions to the „Canada Presbyterian“; but ere he had finished that essay he received such encouragement from brethren whose opinions he was bound to respect, that he determined on extending his investigations and, at length, presenting the result in the form desired. For careful supervision and judicious selection of tunes his thanks are specially due to Mr. S. R. Hart, Toronto. These notes, such as they are, are now commended to Him without whose blessing nothing is good and nothing strong by the
AUTHOR.
OWEN SOUND, 1st Dec., 1889.
iii
Rock of Ages, cleft for me (Toplady/Hastings)