If these are the most important factors in ecclesiastical-liturgical activity, and if the church hymnal is to be in perfect harmony with the life of the Church, then the hymns in the hymnal may be arranged as follows: 1. _Festival Hymns_, arranged according to the festivals, cycles and holy-days of the church year—Advent, Christmas, New Year, Epiphany, etc. 2. _Hymns about the Church and ecclesiastical acts_: the Word, the Church, Missions, ecclesiastical acts (worship, Holy Baptism, Holy Communion, confirmation, ordination and installation, dedication of churches, etc., also marriage and burial). 3. _Hymns about the Christian life_: repentance, faith, justification and state of grace, sanctification (the fruits of regeneration, prayer, cross and consolation), the completion (the resurrection, judgment, eternity). 4. _Hymns for certain people, times and circumstances_: the Christian community (fatherland, the authorities and the subjects, judges and those suing for justice, temporal necessities, war and peace, plagues and calamities, etc.), the Christian school or Christian education, the Christian home (husband and wife, parents and children, master and servant, morning and evening hymns, etc.), conditions in the life of an individual (health, sickness, death, etc.). GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH HYMNS SECTION III EARLY CHRISTIAN HYMNODY To About 600 A. D. The Christians of the first century sang hymns, both in private and in public worship. The writings of the New Testament testify to this fact, as for example 1 Cor., chapter 14, also the well known places Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16. To begin with the Christians sang the hymns of the Old Testament, especially the Psalms of David. Among early Christian songs, we note the following: the Gloria in excelsis Deo (the angelic hymn), the Gloria Patri, the Ter Sanctus (Isaiah 6:3), the Hallelujah, the Benedicite, the Nunc Dimittis (Luke 2:29), the Magnificat (Luke 1:46), the Benedictus (Luke 1:68), and the Te Deum Laudamus. From Paul’s references to sacred song in his epistles we learn that the early Christians possessed hymns of their own composition, besides the Bible songs. But we know very little about these very early hymns of the Apostolic Age; we know of no great hymn writer of that age. One of the earliest hymn writers that we know of is Clement of Alexandria, who lived about 200 A. D. To him is attributed the Greek hymn, “Shepherd of tender youth,” which has been regarded as the first Christian hymn. It is found in most of our standard American hymnals—number 282 in Common Service Book. In 1846 this hymn was freely translated into English by Rev. Dr. Henry Martyn Dexter, editor of The Congregationalist, Boston. EARLY GREEK HYMNS