26. Hymns for the Church of Christ—Edited by Rev. Frederic H. Hedge and Rev. Frederic D. Huntington, Boston, 1853.
Frederic Henry Hedge (1805-1890) later became a distinguished professor in the Harvard Divinity School. Frederic Dan Huntington (1819-1904) later joined the Episcopal Church, in which he attained a bishopric.
The book contains 872 hymns,—no musical instructions beyond indication of metres. It is conservative in tone but is marked by high literary standards, and by a catholic inclusiveness beyond that of most books in this series. It includes a number of translations of Breviary hymns, and in it appears, for the first time, Hedge’s translation of Luther’s “Ein’ feste Burg.” Better printed than most contemporary hymn-books, it was hailed as “much the best book of hymns yet published.” Many hymns are listed as “Anon.” and some authors are given by surname only, making identification doubtful.
27. Services and Hymns for the use of the Unitarian Church of Charleston, S.C., 1854, 1867.
The preface to the first edition, dated “April, 1854,” was signed by S. Gilman and C. M. Taggart, then joint ministers of the church. No copy of this edition appears to be extant. A new and enlarged edition, with an unsigned preface but reprinting the earlier preface signed by Gilman and Taggart, appeared in 1867, “Printed by Joseph Walker, Agt., Charleston.” “Hymns for Christian Worship,” 171 in number, make up the second half of this volume. Almost all of them are the standard English hymns in current use in the first half of the 19th century, with 10 hymns by American authors, three of which are by Dr. Gilman and two by his wife, Caroline Gilman, all of which had appeared in earlier collections.
28. Hymn Book for Christian Worship—Boston, 1854.
There is no preface and the name of the compiler nowhere appears. It was, however, edited by Rev. Chandler Robbins (1810-1882), minister of the Second Church in Boston, and is, in effect, an enlargement of his earlier Social Hymn Book, [(18)], with 761 hymns, better adapted to church use. Like its predecessor, it contained chiefly the older type of hymns,—107 by Watts, 62 by Doddridge, 40 by James Montgomery, 13 by C. Wesley, and 20 more called “Wesleyan.”
29. The Soldier’s Companion: Dedicated to the Defenders of their Country in the Field, by their Friends at Home, published as the issue of The Monthly Journal, Boston, for October, 1861, vol. II, No. 10.
This was a small paper bound collection of a few traditional hymns, supplemented by a dozen anti-slavery or wartime songs by living writers, including J. Pierpont, E. H. Sears, and J. R. Lowell, with a supplement of devotional readings and prayers. Presumably it had some use in the Army, but copies are now very rare.
30. Christian Worship—New York, 1862.