Stow, Baron; Smith, S. F. The Social Psalmist: A New Selection of Hymns for Conference Meetings and Family Worship. Boston | New York: Gould, Kendall, and Lincoln | Lewis Colby, 1849. [8626]
Full leather, 6 1/2 x 4 inches, joints cracked with an old paper repair over the spine, inner end paper hinges good and the boards are not loose. Pink end papers. (20), 1-196 pp., tight. Light foxing, a few marginal notes/check marks. Good. Full leather.
A sequel to the authors' The Psalmist.
"After the publication of the Psalmist, the editors found in their possession a considerable number of hymns, consecrated in the affections of Christians, but which the limits prescribed to them necessarily excluded. There were also hymns breathing a pious spirit, and dear to many of the people of God, - though of a less elevated character, yet not particularly objectionable, - which it was not deemed expedient to admit in that work. These compositions were immediately collected together, and combined with other familiar and excellent hymns, marked by a pure taste and correct sentiment and expression. During the last five years, the selection has often been revised, and additions made to it of such pieces as have seemed adapted to its design...This selection has been made on the same principle which guided the editors in preparing the Psalmist. They commit the result of their labors to the public, earnestly desiring that the work may prove a help to the devout, and an acceptable offering to the cause of their divine Master." - Preface.
"The first Baptist hymnal to achieve denominational status was The Psalmist (1843), compiled by two Massachusetts pastors, Baron Stow (1801-1869) of Boston's Baldwin Place Baptist Church and Samuel F. Smith (1808-1895) of the First Baptist Church of Newton." - Music & Richardson, "I Will Sing the Wondrous Story", pp. 203.
With a signed provenance card from the collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.