I stumbled upon this quote today:
“For some years it has been apparent that the rage for novelties in singing, especially in our Sunday Schools, has been driving out of use the old, precious, standard hymns. They are not memorized as of old. They are scarcely sung at all. They are not even contained in the non-denominational songbooks which in many churches have usurped the place of our hymn books.
We cannot afford to lose these old hymns. They are full of the Gospel; they breathe the deepest emotions of pious hearts in the noblest strains of poetry; they have been tested and approved by successive generations of those that loved the Lord; they are the surviving fittest ones from thousands of inferior productions; they are hallowed by abundant usefulness and tenderest memories. But the young people of today are unfamiliar with them, if the present tendency goes unchecked.”
-Basil Manly, Jr., 1892
Interestingly, three albums that are in my music rotation right now are hymn-based:
PAGE CXVI’s, Hymns and Hymns II and
Sandra McCracken’s, In Feast or Fallow.
By the way, you can get PAGECXVI’s Hymns free at this link until midnight, Tuesday (May 4th).
All three are highly recommended mixes of old and new hymns – check ‘em out kids!
