Sacred Hymns (Nauvoo Hymnal)

In Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1841, Emma Smith published an expanded version of the 1835 Collection of Sacred Hymns (Kirtland, Ohio). The new hymnal contained 304 hymns (340 pages before the index), in words-only format. Of these, 77 hymns had been included in the 1835 hymnbook. Many of the hymns included in the 1841 hymnal were more focused on grace, the blood of Christ, and the cross than other LDS hymn collections. Examples include "Amazing Grace", "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing", and "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross". After the succession crisis in the early Latter Day Saint movement following Joseph Smith's death, this hymnal was largely ignored in favor of the Manchester Hymnal by those church members who followed the Quorum of the Twelve and moved to the Salt Lake Valley. In the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, however, the opposite was true.[1][2]

Editions of this hymnal are very rare – in 2007, Swann Galleries in New York auctioned one, along with a first edition of the Book of Mormon, for $180,000.[3]

  1. ^ "See Hicks, Michael (2012) "Emma Smith's 1841 Hymnbook," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies: Vol. 21: No. 1, Article 3". scholarsarchive.byu.edu.
  2. ^ Richard Clothier, 150 Years of Song: Hymnody in the Reorganization, 1860-2010 (Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House), 8, 19
  3. ^ "Book of Mormon sells for $180,000". Deseret News. 2007-03-23. Archived from the original on July 12, 2007. Retrieved 2012-01-27.