1/2 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1786 



founded on other Scriptures, as we .... worship. Clergy and laity 

 here are greatly .... to purchase books. 



You will please to put the proper numbers to the pages of the enclosed 

 hymns, as I have forgot at what my last week's copy closed, and there- 

 fore have marked or paged them A, B, C, etc., which you will expunge 

 when you put the numbers. Please to put Hymn 25 on Recovery 

 from Sickness in the former copy next after Hymn 40 of this enclosed 

 copy, being on the same subject ; and alter the numbers of the hymns 

 accordingly from No. 25 to No. 40, inclusive. 



Next post shall answer all the unanswered parts of your former letters, 

 send you the preface, and conclude this business, with great thankful- 

 ness to God who hath enabled us to carry it forward, with so great har- 

 mony and satisfaction to ourselves, and I trust it will be to the full 

 satisfaction of our constituents and the public. Write me fully this 

 week, as I am to cross the bay next Sunday evening. 



Yours, 



W.M. Smith. 



Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. 



Philadelphia, February ist, 1786. 



DE.A.R Sir : I have received yours by this day's post ; and, agreeably 

 to your desire, sit down to write to you particularly on the subjects 

 of it. 



I send you (with the Psalter) the first proof-sheet of the psalms. You 

 will see that I have divided them. You objected to this in your former 

 letter that it will become necessary to leave out parts of psalms for 

 want of enough to make one division. I answer that it will not happen 

 if we allow that to be enough which may suffice for one time of the 

 clerk's singing. You also took notice that the other plan was adopted 

 in respect to the reading psalms. I answer that the same reason does 

 not hold in the singing psalms, viz. : their being used together. Our 

 brethren here are clear for dividing them and authorize me to say so, 

 and Mr. Hopkinson thinks the other plan very exceptionable. I beg 

 you to weigh the matter once more ; and if after all you should continue 

 in your present mind I will execute it accordingly, provided you will 

 take your pen and set down precisely what psalms shall follow one 

 another, so as to be a guide to the printer. In doing this you will 

 probably (like myself) be tired of the idea of running them into one 

 another: if not, I will perform my promise. You will observe that I 

 have put the rubric mark. I thought this proper to make it harmonize 

 with the other parts of the liturgy, and to show with what view the 

 psalms are introduced. In the old book they were no part of the com- 

 mon prayer, but were only used by the royal permission. With us, as 

 I conceive, they are to be part of the liturgy. 



