Mercer, Jesse. The Cluster of Spiritual Songs, Divine Hymns, and Sacred Poems; being chiefly A Collection. Philadelphia: Published for the Proprietor: For Sale by J. J. Woodward, Philadelphia; and Collins & Hannay, New-York, 1830. Fifth Edition, Revised. [8627]
Sometime rebound in green library cloth, white ink call numbers on spine, rest plain, a few small blotches to the binding, 5 1/4 x 3 inches, tight. Library blind stamp on the title page & 1 p. of text, a few other incidental markings, no other library matter. 540 clean pp., collated and complete. Very good. Hardcover.
A Southern hymnal of great interest. William Walker mentions the Cluster of Spiritual Songs as a source on the title page of his shaped-note tune book, Southern Harmony.
"The most significant collection south of Virginia was The Cluster of Spiritual Songs by Georgia pastor Jessie Mercer (1769-1841). At first a small collection of purely local interest, this book grew both in size and influence. The third edition of 1810, the earliest extant, contains 183 hymns, with another eighteen texts in an appendix. By 1823, it had grown into an anthology of 677 texts [same as this 1830 copy - HWB], with a title similarly enlarged. The Cluster remained in print into the 1870's...Though Mercer's Cluster includes a substantial body of the British inheritance, it emphasizes spiritual songs. The five hymns by Mercer are typical. One relates his own spiritual struggle and conversion, while another candidly conveys the doubts that were mixed with his faith. The book reflects the sort of evangelical Calvinism with with the Sandy Creek tradition of Shubal Stearns, Martha Stearns, and Daniel Marshall is often identified. Ray Brewster has noted that a section on 'Christian Exercises' lies at the heart of the Cluster. This forms part of a larger pattern that reflects the experimental life of faith and bears some similarity to the organization of Wesleyan hymnals." - Music & Richardson, "I Will Sing the Wondrous Story", pp. 189-190.
Jesse Mercer (1769-1841) b. Halifax Co., NC; d. Butts Co., GA. "Georgia Baptist preacher-pastor, denominational statesman, historian, hymnologist and philanthropist...Pastor for fifty-two years of Georgia Baptist churches...From 1795 to 1839 he held the highest offices in the Georgia Baptist Association, the oldest such body in the state. His A History of the Georgia Baptist Association, published in 1838, is one of the most important historical documents ever published about Georgia Baptists. With the founding of the Georgia Baptist Convention in 1822, Mercer was elected president, a post he held for nineteen years until his death." - Shurden, Dictionary of Baptists in America.
With a signed provenance card from the collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.
