Village Hymns for Social Worship is a collection of Christian hymns in English. Edited and compiled by the American Evangelist minister Asahel Nettleton (1783-1844). The collection is built around the hymns of Isaac Watts (1674-1748) with supplemental hymns “adapted to the various exigencies of a revival” written by various authors from Nettleton’s time and religious mode (p.v).
Asahel Nettleton was a Congregationalist theologian and minister from Connecticut who traveled and preached throughout New England during the period known as the Second Great Awakening, an important milestone in the transition of American Protestantism from the Calvinism and Puritanism of the founders of many of the New England colonies, such as Connecticut and Massachusetts, to the Methodist and Baptist churches that are more commonly seen in the United States today. In spreading the hymns of Isaac Watts, Nettleton was spreading the works of a prominent minister from the same Calvinist lineage as himself.
Isaac Watts was a Congregationalist theologian and minister in 17th and 18th century England. A nonconformist in a predominantly Anglican time and place, he was disallowed from studying at either Oxford or Cambridge where membership to the Church of England was a requirement. Consequently, he received his education at the Dissenting Academy at Stoke Newington. Watts was mostly a preacher by trade, but in addition to his duties to his congregation, Watts wrote educational books on a variety of subjects. His most enduring writings, however, are his hymns. Considered one of the most prolific writers of hymns in English, Watts is credited with some 750 hymns, many of which continue to be used in a wide variety of Christian church services.
- Title: Village Hymns for Social Worship. Selected and Original. Designed as a Supplement to the Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts.
- Author: Asahel Nettleton
- Publisher: Sands
- Place: New York
- Year: 1828
- Length: 488pp
- Format: 12mo
- Dimensions: 3” x 4.75” x 1.75”
- Condition: Hardback. Leather bound. Cover scarred and worn with age, particularly around the edges and hinges. Binding slightly loose. Missing page before title. Some small folds. Some pencil markings. Pages softened from use, somewhat tanned and with a moderate amount of foxing. Inscription in front endpapers for who appears to be Aron T. Gibbs of Framingham.