G:\Pocket Hymn Book (1787)

$G:\Pocket Hymn Book (1787)$ Modernized text Pocket Hymn Book (1787)1 [Baker List, #444] Editorial Introduction: In 1780 John Wesley issued A Collection of Hymns for the People Called Methodists. This was the largest collection that he ever published (with 525 hymns), and Wesley clearly desired that it would become the standard text of his Methodist people for private use and in their society gatherings.2 One major obstacle stood in the way of this desire—the cost of the volume, at 4 shillings. It was in part because many of his people could not afford this cost that Wesley continued to reprint Select Hymns (1765), with editions in 1780, 1783, and 1787, which was less than a third the length of the 1780 Collection, and sold for 1 shilling, six pence. But Select Hymns did not mirror well the content of the 1780 Collection, lacking even such Methodist favourites as “O for a Thousand Tongues.” This created an opportunity for Robert Spence, a bookseller with Methodist connections in York , to offer another solution. In 1781 he published an abridgement of Wesley’s 1780 Collection, reducing it by two-thirds (to 174 hymns), while retaining the most popular hymns among Methodists.3 Spence took this step without approval, and drew Wesley’s displeasure.4 But since he was not an itinerant preacher, Spence was not accountable to injunctions by Conference against publishing materials without Wesley’s approval.5 While his 1781 publication had limited success, Spence reframed it in 1783 in two ways that greatly increased its popularity. First, he added about fifty hymns by other authors popular in evangelical circles. Second, he printed the new collection on smaller pages (duodecimo), making it easier to carry. He titled the transformed volume a Pocket Hymn Book, designed as a constant companion for the pious, and sold it for 1 shilling a copy.6 These revisions turned Spence’s Pocket Hymn Book into a commercial success. As Thomas Wride, one of Wesley’s itinerants, complained the following year, it “makes great way among our societies. I have seen six at a time in a private house.”7 Part of Wride’s concern was that “the sale of such books must proportionably lessen the sale of Mr. Wesley’s, and render Mr. Wesley less able to help such as for years past have been helped by the profit of the books sold for Mr. Wesley.” This was a concern that Wesley clearly shared (see §6 of the Preface below). Wride’s suggested solution was for Wesley to issue a smaller collection of hymns, printed in a size that could fit in a pocket, that sold for 1 shilling. He was confident that such a volume, if diligently spread by the preachers, 1This document was produced under the editorial direction of Randy L. Maddox, with the diligent assistance of Aileen F. Maddox. Last updated: October 5, 2018. 2The unique situation of the Methodists in North America organizing as a church led Wesley to publish in 1784 a volume for their formal worship: A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Lord’s Day. 3A Collection of Hymns from Various Authors, Designed for General Use (York: Printed for R. Spence, Bookseller in High Ousegate. 1781). 4See Richard Burdekin, Memoir of ... Robert Spence (York: Longman, 1840), 33–34. 5See the summary of the 1761 Conference (JW, Works, 10:291); the Minutes of the 1765 Conference, Q. 24 (10:311); and the Minutes of the 1781 Conference, Q. 25 (10:516). 6Pocket Hymn-Book, designed as a constant companion for the pious; collected from various authors (York: Printed for R. Spence, in Ousegate, 1783). 7Thomas Wride to Wesley, July 3, 1784 (MARC, PLP 115/9/35); for all quotations in this paragraph. would soon render Spence’s text “out of date.” Within a couple of months of receiving Wride’s letter Wesley did prepare for publication a small collection, printed in an appropriate size to be titled A Pocket Hymn Book for the Use of Christians of all Denominations (1785). But as he made clear in the Preface to that volume, Wesley was not trying to abridge the 1780 Collection, selecting the most popular hymns. Instead he sought to supplement the 1780 Collection by inserting into Pocket Hymn Book (1785) other worthy hymns from earlier collections that did not make it into the 1780 Collection. Time soon proved there was little market for such a supplement, and this volume was never reprinted. Meanwhile Spence’s Pocket Hymn Book flourished, reaching a sixth edition by 1786. Since these sales garnered no funds to support poor preachers, itinerants at the 1786 Conference in Bristol encouraged Wesley to start issuing Spence’s collection himself (see §2 of the preface below). While convinced of the need for such a volume, Wesley shared the concern of some of his itinerants about the theology and/or poor poetic quality of several of the non-Wesleyan hymns that Spence had inserted in his larger volume (see §3 of the Preface below). Accordingly, in the fall of 1786 Wesley finally took up the task of producing a Pocket Hymn Book (1787) that gathered what he judged to be the best hymns popular among his Methodist people, that could be an explicit competitor to or replacement for Spence’s Pocket Hymn Book. Since Spence had relied heavily on Wesley’s 1780 Collection for his Pocket Hymn Book, Wesley could retain significant overlap with Spence in his own Pocket Hymn Book (1787). The two volumes hold 184 hymns in common. But significantly, Wesley excised the majority of hymns by other authors that Spence had inserted in 1783—while he lists the number excluded as 37 (Preface, §3), careful comparison reveals 48 hymns elided (see list at end of this introduction). In their place Wesley added 66 hymns from the 1780 Collection not found in Spence.8 He also restored his preferred theological ordering of the hymns (see Preface, §5). Significantly, Wesley subtitled Pocket Hymn Book (1787) “for the use of Christians of all Denominations.” This suggests that he considered it a replacement for his earlier collection Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Intended for the Use of Real Christians of all Denominations (1753)–a collection he never republished after 1787. Moreover, in his preface (§7) Wesley characterized Pocket Hymn Book (1787) as “greatly inferior to the large hymn-book.” He clearly did not intend this new volume to displace the centrality of the 1780 Collection among his Methodist people. Whatever Wesley’s intention, the reformulated Pocket Hymn Book (1787) proved popular, outselling from its debut the 1780 Collection among British Methodists. An even sharper transition took place among Methodists in North America, who set aside the 1780 Collection for a revised form of Spence’s Pocket Hymn Book prepared by Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke in 1786.9 Pocket Hymn Book (1787) is comprised of 250 hymns, almost all of which are drawn from earlier Wesley collections. For the majority the immediate source in the 1780 Collection. The Table of Contents makes note of the most immediate source. In six cases these are hymns by other authors drawn from Spence’s Pocket Hymn Book (1783); these instances are noted in red font in the Table of Contents. There are also two cases where the source is Charles Wesley, but the hymn is abridged so that this is the initial time it appears with this first-line. These also appear in red font. Editions: 8Hymns 3, 4, 5, 7, 14, 16, 24, 26, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 54, 61, 67, 73, 84, 85, 86, 92, 95, 117, 119, 122, 125, 129, 132, 135, 136, 144, 145, 146, 147, 149, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 159, 179, 180, 181, 183, 185, 189, 190, 196, 197, 199, 200, 217, 218, 223, 232, 236, 239, 243, 247, 248, 249, 250. These are also highlighted in blue font in the Table of Contents. 9A Pocket Hymn Book, designed as a constant companion for the pious (New York: W. Ross, 1786). See the analysis in Carlton Young, ed. Companion to the United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: 1993), 97–108. John Wesley. Pocket Hymn Book, For the Use of Christians of all Denominations. London: Paramore, 1787. 2nd London: New Chapel, 1788. 3rd London: New Chapel, 1789. 4th London: for the author, 1790. 5th London: New Chapel, 1790. Hymns in Spence’s Pocket Hymn Book (1783) omitted by JW in Pocket Hymn Book (1787) Hymn 2. “Come ye sinners, poor and needy” (Joseph Hart) 4–5 Hymn 16. “Lukewarm souls, the foe grows stronger” (Joseph Hart) 16–17 Hymn 19. “Tis a point I long to know” (John Newton) 19–20 Hymn 20. “The one thing needful, that good part” (Benjamin Ingham) 20–21 Hymn 28. “Encouraged by thy word” (John Newton) 28–30 Hymn 29. Jesu, Lover of my soul (CW; is in HSS (1753),15–16; SelH (1765), 148–49) 30–31 Hymn 46. “My God, my life, my love” (Isaac Watts) 44 Hymn 47. “Jesus, come thou hope of glory” (CW; is in SelH (1765), 8–9) 45 Hymn 48. “I thirst, thou wounded Lamb of God” (Zinzendorf, et al; is in HSP (1740), 74–76) 45–46 Hymn 98. “Lord, we come before thee now” (William Hammond) 86–87 Hymn 99, “Come, thou almighty king” (author unknown) 87–88 Hymn 102. “Come thou fount of every blessing” (Robert Robinson; Martin Madan) 90 Hymn 114. “My hope, my all, my Saviour thou” (author unknown) 100–101 Hymn 118. “A Christ I have, O what a Christ I have” (author unknown) 104 Hymn 119. “Now in a song of grateful praise” (Samuel Medley) 104–5 Hymn 126.

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