I HAVE been frequently asked by my friends to point out, and even to mark, my own Hymns in those collections wherein they have been printed. For this reason, therefore, I am induced to collect them together, with a few additional pieces, three or four of which have also been previously published. And in so doing, I have a request to make of my brethren in Christ with regard to this little work.
I have been much grieved, I confess, to observe how the practice of needlessly altering some even of our well-known favorite hymns has lately prevailed; and could not help wishing that they had been left, still to cheer and to comfort the hearts of the people of God, notwithstanding, it may be, some imperfections, without any such attempts at improvement. It is surely not fair to treat another's compositions in this way, especially where he is not unsound as to doctrine. In writing a hymn or a poem, an author knows his own meaning and object far better than another can possibly do; and when he finds that his thoughts have been meddled with and deranged in this way, he is painfully conscious that he has been misunderstood, and that the sense has been either perverted or weakened.
Such being my views with regard to the compositions of others, the reader will be prepared for the request which I am about to make with regard to my own; namely, that should any of these poems or hymns be deemed worthy of a place in any future collections, they may be left as they are, without alteration or abridgment.
And also, (inasmuch as here and there I have revised them myself, I trust for the better,) I should wish that they may be copied from this, rather than from any previous collection wherein they are found.
These requests I make, I trust, without the risk of being charged with assumption, and also with the confident hope that my dear brethren in Christ will kindly comply with my wishes.
E. D.