PAGE Prayer against impatience and irritability, When prevented by illness from going to Church, When unable to sleep from restlessness or pain, For a person suffering from nervous dread of illness, ADVERTISEMENT TO SECOND EDITION. IT has been thought advisable to classify the hymns in the present edition, in order that the Invalid (or those around him) may be able to turn to such as are best suited to his state of mind. The hymns added as an Appendix in the first edition, will now be found interspersed with the rest, under their respective heads, with an addition of fifty Hymns never before published. MARCH, 1841. ADVERTISEMENT TO THIRD EDITION. Twelve hymns are appended as a Supplement to this edition, suited to particular occasions and circumstances of the Invalid. JUNE, 1843. ADVERTISEMENT TO SIXTH EDITION. (TWELFTH THOUSAND.) This edition has been thoroughly revised and corrected; a few hymns not so suitable in times of sickness have been omitted, and thirty-four, never before published, and prepared exclusively for this edition, I have been added. A few additions have also been made to the hymns designed for Particular Occasions. The work, now consisting of two hundred hymns, one hundred and twelve of which are original, and written by the present Editor, is afresh commended to His blessing, who alone can impart solid peace and comfort to the Invalid, in the lonely hours of affliction and pain. AUGUST, 1854. INTRODUCTORY PREFACE BY THE REV. HUGH WHITE, A. M. THE Soothing influence of sacred poetry, when it breathes the spirit of Scriptural piety, has been felt and acknowledged by many a mourner in Zion, whose troubled soul has been tranquillized, and its anguish alleviated, by the sweet strains of heavenly consolation, embodied in the beautiful language of hymns, long endeared to the Christian Church, as having poured a healing balm into many a bleeding, and almost broken heart. But there is one class of sufferers, whose case calls for peculiar tenderness of sympathy, and discrimination of judgment, in providing a suitable selection of hymns, adapted to their peculiar character and circumstances. Whoever has known, by painful experience, or witnessed, in the course of affectionate attendance on beloved relatives, the results of longcontinued sickness to the Invalid, will be best able to appreciate the value of a selection, specially designed to meet the peculiar requirements of their case. The bodily languor, which is the almost inevitable consequence of protracted illness, often indisposes the Invalid for enjoying a class of hymns, (to be found in all general collections,) which require a greater energy and vivacity of spirit, than sickness, in most cases, will allow. Hence arises the necessity of selecting such as are more congenial to a wounded spirit—such as embody the pathetic lamentations of resigned grief— or suggest the cheering motives for Christian consolation. The eye long dimmed by tears, that is too weak to bear the brightness of more triumphant strains, will gaze with gladdened interest on the tenderer images and associations, which harmonize with the feelings of a sorrowful, though unmurmuring heart. To such a heart, the hymn that pours forth the chastened complainings of a suffering, yet submissive spirit-that pleads, with almost agonizing earnestness, for supporting strength-that expresses the thankful trust of cheerful resignation, or the solemn |