Excerpt from The Catholic Youth's Hymn Book: Containing the Hymns of the Seasons and Festivals of the Year, and an Extensive Collection of Sacred Melodies; To Which Are Added, an Easy Mass, Vespers, and Motets for Benediction From the earliest days of Christianity, the Church has employed sacred music as a most powerful agent to awaken piety and enkindle fervor; thus imparting a relish for the truths of salvation, inspiring sorrow for sin, a salutary fear of the judg ments of God, and confidence in His mercy. St. Augustine, speaking of the influ ence exerted upon him by sacred music, exclaims: Oh! How tender the emo tions I felt, how copious the streams that flowed from my eyes, as I listened to the concert of hymns and canticles that filled the church with its heavenly melody. While my ear yielded to the charm of that divine symphony, my soul was inun dated with the pure love of truth; fervid ejaculations escaped therefrom with im petuous ardor; my eyes were suffused with tears; my burdened heart was allevi ated, and my bitter sorrow changed into unspeakable happiness as I shed them. Had the singing of sacred canticles no other motive than to excite feelings of de votion, it would be worthy of our greatest attention but experience has shown that one of the most successful methods of instructing youth, is to cause them to sing the truths which we desire to instil into their tender minds. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.