VILLAGE HYMNS, And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to STEREOTYPE EDITION. HARTFORD: [Entered according to an Act of Congress A D. 1838, by the REV. ASAREL NETTLETON, the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.] With great satisfaction and pleasure have often heard the friends of the Redeemer express their unqualified attachment to the sacred poetry of Dr. Waits. Most cordially do I unite with them in the hope, that no Selection of Hymns which has ever yet appeared may be suffered to take the place of his inimitable productions. Deficiencies, however, he unquestionably has. Numerous have been the attempts to supply them; but, hitherto, the judicious have been constrained to regret, that these attempts have succeeded only in part. Whether the book here 1blished will add something to that supply, is submitted to the decision of the religious comunity. The compiler does not overlook the valuable abors of those who have preceded him in this department; while he concurs in the opinion, very generally adopted by his brethren in the ministry, that the various benevolent operations, and especially the prevalence of revivals, which are so characteristic of the present day, demand a New Selection of Hymns. In the year 1820, the General Association of Connecticut appointed a committee to devise measures for the prosperity of religion within their limits. I well remember, that at a meeting of this committee, the first item proposed was a New Selection of Hymns. Four years have nearly elapsed, and nothing has been done pur suant to their appointment. When, in the providence of God, I had the hap piness of spending a short season, as a laborer for Christ, within the limits of the Albany Presbyte ry, the call for such a work in that region, and as I learned from the most respectable sources extensively in the West and South, was not imperious and pressing, than in districts 27 |