Music apart, the three main tasks facing hymn book editors are: one, choosing the hymns; two, changing them (they all do it); and three, writing an Introduction or Preface.
Of these, the hardest by far is the third. If, that is, you want to get it right. You know for a start that over 99% of those who use the book will never read it, and that the other less-than-one in a hundred will pick it over relentlessly for unsubstantiated claims, unguarded assertions, and unbiblical assumptions. Only once in my life can I recall reading a review which praised a Preface, and that was when Mr. Wilson was Prime Minister and Carlisle was in the First Division.
So what does the Preface-writer do? Three options are open.
