John Wesley

“ Lastly, I desire men of taste to judge, (these are the only competent judges,) whether there be not in some of the following hymns the true spirit of poetry, such as cannot be acquired by art and labour, but must be the gift of nature. By labour a man may become a tolerable imitator of Spenser, Shakspeare, or Milton; and may heap together pretty compound epithets, as pale-eyed, meek-eyed, and the like; but unless he be born a poet, he will never attain the genuine spirit of poetry. ”

“ Therefore, I must beg of them one of these two favours: either to let them stand just as they are, to take them for better for worse; or to add the true reading in the margin, or at the bottom of the page; that we may no longer be accountable either for the nonsense or for the doggerel of other men. ”

“ The Spirit of its living Head having never departed from the Church, it follows that those in all ages who by the Holy Ghost have called Jesus Lord should have been occupied with attempts to set forth His praise. ”

“ What we want is, a collection not too large, that it may be cheap and portable; nor too small, that it may contain a sufficient variety for all ordinary occasions."
4. Such a Hymn-Book you have now before you. It is not so large as to be either cumbersome, or expensive: and it is large enough to contain such a variety of hymns, as will not soon be worn threadbare. It is large enough to contain all the important truths of our most holy religion, whether speculative or practical ”

“ As in the old time they still "prophesy and do not cease," so that our age is richer in good hymns than any that have gone before it. The Committee have been glad to avail themselves of the labours of both contemporaries and predecessors, and accordingly the present volume is enriched by a selection from the works of modern hymnologists as well as from the accumulated treasures of the past. ”

“ But it has been answered, "Such a publication is highly needful upon this very account; for the greater part of the people, being poor, are not able to purchase so many books: and those that have purchased them are, as it were, bewildered in the immense variety. A proper collection of hymns for general use, carefully made out of all these books, is therefore still wanting ”