The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-08-25
Churches Generally Welcome
The Change That Is Made.
One to Be Cast Aside Used For
Thirty Years.
History of Song Making For
Wesleyan Followers.
From TUESDAYS Daily.

From Tuesdays Daily.
Methodists of Mankato, of the state
and of the entire country, can now pre-
pare to throw away their hymn books,
which for thirty years past have fur
nished music for the followers of Wesley,
as it has now been put aside and new
hymn book will take its place.
The old Methodist hymn book that
for nearly thirty years has furnished
the music for the followers of John
Wesley, has been put aside. A new
hymn book has been printed in its place,
and already the presses are running off
carloads of them to supply the demand.
The new hymnal will be used by both
Methodist Episcopal church north
and Methodist Episcopal church
south, and it is the hope of
many persons in both churches
that the use of the common hymnal will
build up sentiment that will eventually
bring the two organizations together
under one head, as was the condition be-
fore the war, when the churches of the
south seeded from the mother church.
The new book was prepared by
Joint commission of both churches, with
total membership of twenty-five. On
this commission Professor c. NJ. Stuart,
head of the department of divine rhe-
toric at the Northwestern university,
was one of the leading members. The
commission was appointed at a general
conference of the Methodist church in
Chicago in 1900, and the Methodist
church South at Dallas, Tex, in 1902,
and for nearly two years the work of
preparing the hymnal was under con-
sideration.
Where the old hymnal had LII
hymns, besides doxologies, occasional
pieces, and chants the new book has
only III hymns, reduction of more
than one-third. These figures, however,
do not show how many of the old
hymns were taken out, for while there
are 400 less hymns in the present vol.
ume, there are, too, 125 new hymns
that were not in the old volume This
means 255 of the hymns that are found
and shows that the old hymnal was
practically cut in half.
Being the official hymnal of the two
great branches of the Methodist church,
the new book will be used by larger
number of persons than any other hymn
nal. There are approximately 100000
members in the two churches, and while
there will be no order compelling the use
of the new book, it is expected that the
demand will be so great for time that
it will be almost impossible to supply it.
Already there are 100000 copies being
printed by the three publishing houses
of the church, and as soon as this edi-
ton is disposed of preparations will be
made for a northern edition equally
as large This number of books will
make five carloads, and will weigh $751;
1926 pounds, and will consume 5,487
reams of paper.
OF the old hymnal millions of copies
have been printed and distributed in ev-
cry country in the world. 1t was is
sued in 1876, and thus for twenty nine
years was the manual of song of the
Methodist church. The hymns that
were discarded in the making of the ;
new volume were those that were in
little use, either because of an unpopu-
lar tune or unpopular words. 1t is de-
MED by members of the commission that
any one of them were left out because
they might be called songs of "shout-
ing Methodism."
'The old hymnal was very advance
ed book for it's time," said Professor
Stuart. ct contained no hymns that
could not be sung with strict propriety
today, but there were many of them
that were never used because unpopular,
and that being so there was no reason
why they should be retained"
The arrangement of the words and
the music in the new hynmaI is different
from the old arrangement, and as con-
sequence the book has more pages than
the old book, even though there is
much smaller number of hymns. In
the new book the words are inserted
with the music of the tune, requiring
much more space, and besides there are
chants, and psalter, covering eighty
three pages, and the ritual, the later
section containing forms of baptism, re-