Hill, Benjamin. Hymns of Zion; being a Selection of Hymns for Social Worship, compiled chiefly for the use of Baptist Churches. New-Haven: Durrie and Peck | Stereotyped by A. Chandler, 1832. Second Edition. [8468]
Full leather binding, red leather title label, gilt lines to spine, 2 1/4 x 4 inches, no cracks or other damage to the binding. Most of the ffep is cut away; there is a narrow 1/2 inch hole in the front fly page. Second fly page inscribed in brown ink, "Mrs. Lavinia Buck, Salisbury, 1832." 256 pp., complete. Some sections shaken, a few tattered page edges & creased corners. Good.
Starr, A Baptist Bibliography, H3795. The first edition was published in 1829; the second edition was first published in 1830.
Benjamin Munro Hill (1793-1881), Pastor of the Baptist Church in New Haven at the time of this compilation. The Prefaces (first & second) which introduce this volume contain apologies by Hill for some of the crudeness of the selections, and, after saying hymns were added with reluctance, says, "But those hymns possess a great local popularity, and could not have been omitted without opposing the wishes of many valuable men."
Hill was noted for his 1829 Sermon delivered before the Legislature of the State of Connecticut, entitled, The Moral Responsibility of Civil Rulers.
With a signed provenance card from the collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.