Note 2 — Chapter XIV · THE ENGLISH HYMN BEFORE WATTS

“Thus the psalms have been at once an inspiration and a bondage: an inspiration in that they have kindled the fire which has produced the hymnody of the entire church; a bondage, because, by stereotyping religious expression, they robbed the heart of the right to express in its own words the fears, the joys, the hopes that the Divine Spirit had kindled in their souls.” (W. Garrett Horder, in The Hymn Lover.)