Christian Hymns of the First Three Centuries

THE PAPERS OF THE HYMN SOCIETY
Carl F. Price
Editor
by Ruth Ellis Messenger, Ph.D.
THE HYMN SOCIETY OF AMERICA New York City 1942
Carl F. Price, Editor
I. “The Hymns of John Bunyan.” By Louis F. Benson, D.D. II. “The Religious Value of Hymns.” By William P. Merrill, D.D. III. “The Praise of the Virgin in Early Latin Hymns.” By Ruth Ellis Messenger, Ph.D. IV. “The Significance of the Old French Psalter.” By Professor Waldo Selden Pratt, L.H.D., Mus.D. V. Hymn Festival Programs. VI. “What Is a Hymn?” By Carl F. Price, M.A. VII. “An Account of the Bay Psalm Book.” By Henry Wilder Foote, D.D. VIII. “Lowell Mason: an Appreciation of His Life and Work.” By Henry Lowell Mason. IX. “Christian Hymns of the First Three Centuries.” By Ruth Ellis Messenger, Ph.D. X. Addresses at the Twentieth Anniversary of the Hymn Society of America. XI. Hymns of Christian Patriotism. XII. “Luther and Congregational Song.” By Luther D. Reed, D.D., A.E.D. XIII. “Isaac Watts and his Contribution to English Hymnody.” By Norman Victor Hope, M.A., Ph.D. XIV. “Latin Hymns of the Middle Ages.” By Ruth Ellis Messenger, Ph.D. XV. “Revival of Gregorian Chant, Its Influence on English Hymnody.” By J. Vincent Higginson, Mus.B., M.A.
Copies of these papers at 25 cents each may be obtained from the Executive Secretary of the Hymn Society.
Note: Inquire before ordering as some numbers are temporarily out of print.
Dr. Reginald L. McAll, 2268 Sedgwick Avenue New York 53, N. Y.
Copyright, 1942, by Hymn Society of America Reprinted 1949
There is no part of the general field of Christian hymnology so baffling to the student or so full of difficulties as the one under consideration in this paper. Many accounts of the subject are in existence but are far from conclusive. This is due, first of all, to the unexpected scarcity of original sources. When one views the rise of Christianity from its inception to the period of the Council of Nicaea, 325, its numerical growth from a handful of original adherents to millions of followers at the time of the Edict of Milan, 313, its literary development from early scattered records to the works of the great Greek and Latin fathers, one cannot help inquiring, “What has become of their hymns?”