User:Rwrose/The Psalmist

The Psalmist: A New Collection of Hymns for the Use of the Baptist Churches was published in Boston, Massachusetts in 1843. It was compiled by Baptist pastors Samuel Francis Smith and Baron Stow. Smith was also the author of the familiar patriotic hymn "My Country, 'Tis of Thee".

Baptists in America in the first decades of the nineteenth century used a variety of hymnbooks in their worship services. In New England, An Arrangement of the Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, D. D., published in 1819 by James Winchell and enlarged in 1832 was widely used. In the Middle Atlantic states, the Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts, arranged by Dr. Rippon; with Dr. Rippon's Selection (1820; 2nd ed., 1827) was popular. In the West and South, H. Miller's New Selection of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs (1835), and W. C. Buck's The Baptist Hymn Book were most frequently used.

In 1841, the American Baptist Publication Society began the process of publishing a hymnbook for the entire Baptist denomination in America. A committee of seven men from each section of the country "was appointed to prepare and superintend the proposed selection." Before they could complete their assigned task, it was learned that "a similar work had been undertaken by Messrs. Gould, Kendall, and Lincoln, Publishers, of Boston; and that Rev. B. Stow and Rev. S. F. Smith, whose services they had engaged, had already commenced their labor." Because of the high regard for Stow and Smith, "there seemed good reason to expect a valuable collection, and one that would fully meet the end which the Board contemplated."