After many years of not having one, (I left the Anglican Church many years ago), I've just acquired a new hymnbook, and it feels as if I've won the jackpot! The feelings of nostalgia that the hymns evoke are unbelievable. It's not really that I miss the Anglican church services, it's more the memories of my school days when we used to sing hymns from this book every morning at school assembly. A hymn book was among the required list of books on starting school.
I still remember many of the songs word for word and even the hymn numbers. The feeling of upliftment I have when I sing these hymns is indescribable. Modern praise and worship music definitely has its place in devotional life but I just know that my times of worship will be greatly enriched because of this reunion with my long-lost love :-) :-)
I totally understand what you are saying, Virtuosity. There are some hymns that are so deep that they literarily take me into the presence of God eg Immortal,Invisible God only wise. I love contemporay praise/worship songs but sometimes they don't really capture the essence of Gods "bigness" like the hymns do. I also recommend u get the SS&S. Bless you.
ReplyDeleteI had completely forgotten about SS&S! It's the presbyterian hymnbook isn't it? But don't they both contain the same range of hymns?
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