HYMNS AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS. THE story of the composition of our various devotional hymns may be regarded as, in some sense, the history of God's Church in the world. The sacred books of our Bible give religious songs that were sung in the earliest times. They record for us the voices of pious souls, uttered in psalm and song; and rising from amid the sands of Arabian deserts, from the Tabernacle courts at Shiloh, from the hills of Palestine, and from the forests of Lebanon. We hear the notes of heroes like Moses and David, and of poets like Asaph and the sons of Korah. Sometimes the song takes form as the majestic antiphones of |