Hymns and Hymn Writers of the Church Hymnary. By the
Rev. John Brownlie. (H.liowile 3s. 6a.)—The " Church Hymnary" is the book of hymns drawn up by the Church of Scotland, the Free and United Presbyterian' Churches, and theft Presbyterian Church of Ireland, and finally agreed upon in the year 1897. The first chapter in this book gives the history of the negotiations which led to this.agreement. The rest of the book is devoted to an account Of the hymns included, their authors and origin, and other cognate matters ; to a special description of children's hymns, and 'to the music, while the final chapter gives a highly interesting. table giving a comparison of twenty-four collections. It appears-'that only one hymn is found in all these. This is "Sun of- my soul, Thou Saviour dear." This statement, however, might give an erroneous idea of the facts. It must be remembered that out of the twenty-four, nine are "children's hymnals." A hymn may be acceptable to all, and yet for perfectly valid reasons excluded from those. intended solely for the yoi\ng. . As a matter of fact there are more that. forty that are found in all the adult collections, while six more are in all but the Wesleyan collection. It is.one of the many unhappy results of the fetters with which the Anglican Church is bound, that all its collections are the property of private persons or corporations. This causes an inevitable tendency to discourage pro- duction in this direction. The publishers of the most popular of the hymn-books in use in the Anglican Communion are absolutely under obligation not to bring out any new composition of the kind.
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