Manchester, Wm. C. Songs of Zion, or Conference Hymns, Selected and Original; To which are added, A brief Sketch of the Author's Life and Experience; an Obituary Notice of his late Father, and some Remarks on the Science of Music. Providence: H. H. Brown, 1835. Third Edition, Enlarged and Improved. [8519]
Full calf, scuffed & rubbed yet with no cracks, black spine title label, 2 3/4 x 4 1/4 inches. 224 pp. of text, complete. Ffep torn with loss, last two leaves of index torn at bottom margin with loss of few words, many top corner tips torn away - it looks like the corner was burned and put out (probably from reading with a candle). Good. Full calf.
WorldCat with 5 locations.
"The great improvement of the present edition is, that it contains about thirty new Hymns, which have been carefully selected from a rich fund of materials, while it retains nearly all of the Hymns contained in the former editions, which may be found in this by referring to them in the Index....As it is the custom of many churches to line their Hymns, especially on communion season, I have inserted a number for that purpose, with a variety of Conference Hymns, from various authors, adapted to various occasions and circumstances, all of which are humbly presented to those who wish to use them in praising the Lord, until we sing the new song in the kingdom of God." - Preface.
William Carr Manchester (1794-1861). b. Cranston, Rhode Island; d. Murphy, North Carolina.; the son of Thomas Carr, who was for over fifty years pastor of the Baptist Church in Coventry, Rhode Island. At the time this hymnal was compiled the son William was pastor of the Roger Williams Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island. He was a Six Principle Baptist.
"Elder Manchester was the ablest and most eloquent preacher in the order...he compiled a Hymn Book which will compare favorably, for the excellency of its hymns, with any that have since been published." - The Narragansett Historical Register, Vol. VII. (1889), pp. 240-241.
With a signed provenance card from the collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.
