The Best Church Hymns: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Best Church Hymns, credited to Louis Fitzgerald Benson, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Best Church Hymns by Louis Fitzgerald Benson. Read in English by David Wales This 1898 book is the result of a survey of 107 hymn-books. The thirty-two hymns are ranked in order of popularity. The texts in this recording are said only, not sung, along with a few explanatory notes for each hymn (some footnotes, not all, here recorded). The texts are preceded by two essays concerning hymns and their standards. Benson (1855-1930) was an American Presbyterian minister who edited several hymnals. - Summary by David Wales

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Best Church Hymns
• Author credits: Louis Fitzgerald Benson
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 14
• Listed recording duration: 1:37:56

Catalogue topics

• music
• hymns
• christian hymns
• church music
• church hymns

Track guide

1. 00 Preface — 2:29
2. 01 Introduction 1: What Are The Best Hymns? — 13:47
3. 02 Introduction 2: What Is Today The Standard Of The Best Church Hymns? — 15:49
4. 03 1 – Rock of ages, cleft for me; 2 – When I survey the wondrous cross; 3 – Jesus, lover of my soul. — 8:03
5. 04 4- All praise to thee, my God this night; 5 – Jesus, I my cross have taken; 6 – Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear. — 6:24
6. 05 7 – Awake, my soul, and with the sun; 8 – Hark the herald angels sing; 9 – Abide with me, fast falls the eventide. — 7:27
7. 06 10 – Jerusalem, my happy home; 11 – How sweet the name of Jesus sounds; 12 – Nearer, my God, to thee. — 6:15
8. 07 13 – From Greenland’s icy mountains; 14 – Our God, our help in ages past; 15 – Jerusalem the golden — 6:30
9. 08 16 – Lo, he comes with clouds descending; 17 – Jesus shall reign where’er the sun; 18 – Glorious things of thee are spoken. — 6:43
10. 09 19 – Hark, the glad sound, the Saviour comes; 20 – Come, let us join our cheerful songs; 21 – All hail the power of Jesus’ name. — 5:19
11. 10 22 – Hail to the Lord’s anointed; 23 – O worship the King all glorious above; 24 – Christ the Lord is risen today. — 5:30
12. 11 25 – Guide me, O thou great Jehovah; 26 – Just as I am, without one plea; 27 – God moves in a mysterious way. — 5:03
13. 12 28 – Jesus, the very thought of thee; 29 – Children of the heavenly King; 30 – There is a land of pure delight. — 5:17
14. 13 31 – Thou, whose almighty word; 32 – Brief life is here our portion. — 3:20

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.