Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: IRA D. SANKEY] HYMNS _In Human Experience_ [Illustration: Decoration] by _WILLIAM J. HART, D.D._ [Illustration: Decoration] [Illustration: Harper & Brothers] Publishers _HARPER & BROTHERS_ _New York and London_ 1931 _Copyright, 1931, by Harper & Brothers. Printed in the U. S. A. First Edition_ _D-F_ To _My Wife and Daughters_ [Illustration: Decoration] THE GOOD OLD HYMNS _There’s lots of music in ’em, the hymns of long ago; An’ when some gray-haired brother sings the ones I used to know I sorter want to take a hand—I think o’ days gone by— “On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye.”_ _There’s lots of music in ’em—those dear, sweet hymns of old, With visions bright of lands of light and shining streets of gold; And I hear ’em ringing—singing, where memory dreaming stands, “From Greenland’s icy mountains to India’s coral strands.”_ _We hardly needed singin’ books in them old days: we knew The words, the tunes, of every one, the dear old hymn book through! We had no blaring trumpets then, no organs built for show; We only sang to praise the Lord, “from whom all blessings flow.”_ _An’ so I love the dear old hymns, and when my time shall come— Before the light has left me and my singing lips are dumb— If I can only hear ’em then, I’ll pass, without a sigh, “To Canaan’s fair and happy land, where my possessions lie!”_ —Frank L. Stanton in _The Atlanta Constitution_ _CONTENTS_