instance, three versions of Watts' hymn, "Alas! and did my Saviour bleed!" In one case this hymn is indexed as "We are worthless mortals!" There are two versions of "A charge to keep I have;" one of them being indexed as "My soul be on thy guard."
The indexing of this book leaves much to be desired. There is no proper Chinese index going by the number of strokes in the first character, and in the English index the first lines of some well known hymns have been printed in a misleading way. For instance "Lo! He comes with clouds descending," appears in the index as "See He cometh!" "O for heart to praise my God" appears as "Awake my soul to praise my God." "For ever here my rest shall be," is indexed as "The Saviour shed His precious blood." The editor could not have possessed a very profound acquaintance with English and American hymnology who allowed such mistakes as these to pass.
In many hymns printed in Foochow Hymnals there appears some sad mangling of accents and rhythms. For instance, in the book spoken of above in the hymn "There is a wideness in God's mercy," a hymn with trochaic rhythm, the possessive particle "gi" (其), answering to the Mandarin particle 的, comes on a strong accent 救主其恩廣闊無邊.
In a translation of a favorite hymn largely used in America, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," in the third stanza the two characters 平安 occur. They are actually allowed to be divided by the caesures in the middle of the line. One is reminded of the little girl who said it was wicked to cut off dogs' tails, because what God had joined no man should put asunder.
In a hymnal recently published in Foochow among several very excellent translations the following example of painful literalness appears. The original is the well-known hymn from Sacred Songs and Solos ("Lord, I care not for riches, Neither silver nor gold.") The translation runs 主奴毛看重錢財, which equals the historic translation of the line "Go, bury thy sorrow" 去埋你的憂愁.
One is also reminded of the peroration of the great sermon of the minister of Pittendreigh, which closed with the words, "Am I a goat? Amen!"
It is possible to produce excellent idiomatic hymns in Foochow colloquial. This has been done in some cases. The Anglican Hymnal in Foochow possesses some excellent
