1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 99 



have sent me), will not complete the book. You will have the first 

 leaf of the sheet Gg to reprint, or else the whole sheet, if the book- 

 binder does not choose the trouble to cut out a leaf in every sheet and 

 paste it in the book which is immense trouble, and will occasion much 

 delay. For you will observe, that after the sheet Ff (which is reprinted) 

 the 4th, 5th, 6th, yth, etc., verses of David's 148th Psalm must come 

 in the sheet Gg, where his 149th now stands, and the beginning of his 

 96th or our 25th. This, as I said, will be great trouble and delay, 

 which I am sorry for, as the people are become exceedingly impatient 

 for copies of the book, and the more so as they have more experience 

 of its use. My congregations were exceedingly pleased with the two 

 Good Friday hymns, which, as they had not books, were first read and 

 then sung, and also the two Easter hymns. No. VII and No. VIII, but 

 what above all seemed to make the greatest impression was the two 

 Communion hymns, viz., No. XVII, beginning "J/y God, a?id is thy 

 tabic spread,'' sung after sermon as an invitation to the Sacrament, and 

 No. XVIII, beginning ^'And are we now drought near to God, etc.,''' 

 sung after the communion. It adds a solemnity which they confessed 

 they had not experienced before. The hymns are indeed beautiful and 

 every line of them applicable to the blessed occasion. Have you yet 

 introduced them in this way? When you do you will find it of use to 

 read them for the first time yourself, from the place where you are, the 

 desk or communion table. Every communicant will, before another 

 day, have them by heart as I believe was the case here, between Good 

 Friday and Easter Sunday, as the book was sent for and sundry copies 

 taken in writing, I mean of Hymns 17 and 18. I beg I may have at 

 least one complete book this post. I gave all away at Annapolis, except 

 the loose sheets which I had from time to time as proofs. You will take 

 care to have receipts from the stage masters, skippers, etc., to whom 

 you deliver books for distant places making them accountable for the 

 number, and make the clergy to whom you address them accountable 



for the price — one dollar. 



W. S. 



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



Chester, Md., April 24, 17S6. 



Dear Sir: I am favored with your short note by last post, in which 

 you just mention the receipt of mine by last post; but as it appears had 

 not time to notice its contents. The two corrections in the preface, 

 and a proper adjustment respecting the sheets in the singing psalms 

 which you have thought necessary to reprint, have not, I trust, escaped 

 your notice, as it will be a conclusion of the great attention and labor 

 which the press has cost you. The post rider, I imagine, called on you 

 to have some prayer books for his own disposal, on commission from 

 sundry of his subscribers. But unless he gets them from booksellers in 



