“The Psalmody of the Church has no feeble influence upon her doctrines, and upon the tone and spirit of her piety. An eminent statesman of the old world, once remarked, ‘Let me make the ballads of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.’ A nation’s songs do certainly mould, if not to so great an extent as this apophthegm would imply, yet, very largely indeed, the sentiments, the feelings, and even the opinions of its citizens. The songs of the church, sung from day to day, from sabbath to sabbath, cannot but influence, at least as widely and profoundly, her tone of feeling, and her religious views. Expressing, as they will necessarily do, in the first instance, something of the principles, the spirit, the prominent desires and aims of those who adopt them as the matter of their praise, they must react with no little energy and efficacy upon the hearts of the worshippers as they thus use them. They impress their image deeply by constant use and consequent familiarity. Hence, it occurs, by no means unfrequently, that songs composed by uninspired poets, acquire in the estimation of those who have long employed them in their devotions, a character, little, if any, less sacred than that which attaches to the word of God itself. How infinitely important then, to have every assurance that our ‘Psalmody’ be not only sound in doctrine, but Christ-like in tone, spirit and sentiment! How high the responsibility resting upon those who take upon themselves to frame and establish a Church’s songs of devotion!” — James M. Willson, et al., The True Psalmody; or, The Bible Psalms the Church’s Only Manual of Praise (1859), pp. v-vi