Title page: Lyra Fidelium: Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostle's Creed

Lyra Fidelium: Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostle's Creed

by S. J. Stone, B.A.,
CURATE OF WINDSOR
-------------------------------------
"I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also."
-------------------------------------

Oxford and London:
Messrs. PARKER AND CO.
1866.

Dedicated
TO
MY MOTHER

PREFACE.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The Unity, Omnipotence, and Fatherhood of God
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. The Person and Office of God the Son
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. The Incarnation of God the Son
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. The Passion, Death, and Burial of the God Man
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. The Entrance for His Soul unto Paradise, and His Resurrection
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. His Ascension, and Resumption of Divine Majesty
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. His Second Advent to the Judgment of the Living and the Dead
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. The Person and Office of God the Holy Ghost
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. The Nature of the Universal Church, and the Fellowship of the Saints
("The Church's One Foundation" was taken from this hymn/poem.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. The Remission of Sins
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. The Final Resurrection of the Bodies of the Dead
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
12. The Eternal Condition of the Judgment for the Just and the Unjust
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apostle's Creed
 
---The Tunes indicated by numbers are selected from "Hymns Ancient and Modern."
---It is of course the option of the reader to use these or others which he may think more suitable.

PREFACE.
        Most clergymen are aware how many of their parishioners, among the poor especially, say the Creed in their private prayers.  And they cannot but feel how this excellent use, as also its utterance in public worship, is too often accompanied by a very meagre comprehension of the breadth and depth of meaning contained in each Article of the Confession of Faith.
        Such a feeling first suggested to the Author the probable usefulness of a simple and attractive explanation of the Creed in the popular form of a series of Hymns, such as might be sung or said in private devotion, at family prayer, or in public worship.
        Prose expositions indeed of every kind are not wanting, from the great work of Bishop Pearson downwards, but these are more adapted for the student than for the general worshipper, for education rather than for devotion; and there can be little doubt but that the poetical form is more likely to be effectual in securing an abiding place in the general mind, and also in exercising an influence upon heart and life.
        To this end the Author set about the composition of the following Hymns, and though, now the work is done, he is painfully sensible that he has not reached the point either of fulness or simplicity at which he aimed, he humbly trusts that GOD will make them nevertheless of some use in His Church.
        A short prose Summary of the truths contained in each Article has been added, to render the world more complete by supplying some unavoidable omissions in the Hymns.
        In the preparation of the summaries the Author has been much assisted by the Rev. J. Gorle's "Analysis of Person on the Creed."
        The testimony of Holy Scripture has also been adduced to authorise the doctrine and sentiment of almost every line, and to shew the oneness of the truth of the Bible and the belief of the Church.