<div class="description">
<p>Preface. 
THE Lyra  Mystica owes its origin more to accident than to design ; and a few words will suffice to explain the reason of its publication.
Whilst arranging the Collections of Sacred Poetry which have been published under the titles of &lt;a href="<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://archive.org/details/LyraEucharistica">https://archive.org/details/LyraEucharistica</a>" rel="nofollow"&gt;Lyra Eucharistica&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://archive.org/details/LyraMessianica">https://archive.org/details/LyraMessianica</a>" rel="nofollow"&gt;Lyra Messianica&lt;/a&gt;, by the kindness of Friends I was placed in possession of many Poems of considerable merit which,from the conditions imposed by allotted space and selected subsects, I was obliged to deny myself the gratification of publishing in those Books. The result, however, which attended the issue of the earlier Works led me to think that a Miscellaneous Collection of Religious Poetry, which should be written by the Contributors who secured the popularity of the former Lyrae, and which should form at once a companion and a contrasting Volume to the Collections already published, would not be unacceptable to their Readers.
With the obliging permission of the Authors of the several Poems, this plan has been carried into effect; and the Poems to which I allude form the nucleus of the Lyra  Mystica. This nucleus of Sacred Poetry, however, has been much enlarged from the original selection. Many translations have been made by Friends; original Poems have been received both from former Contributors and from other Authors; privately printed pieces have been kindly placed at my disposal; and to these elements have been added, with a sparing hand, Poetry already published, chiefly by Contributors to the earlier Volumes.
The Title "Mystica" was chosen as indicative of the  Mystical interpretation which has been given in many of the Poems in the following pages to the Sacred or Legendary Events, or to the doctrinal Statements of Holy Scripture, or to the other subjects upon which the Hymns and Verses were composed. 
I have not attempted to make any plan or arrangement of subjects in the following Poems. The Hymns and Verses have been printed so as to produce as much variety in style and matter as possible. And the Collection, it is hoped, will be considered to be, as it was intended to be made, entirely miscellaneous in character and treatment. 
Orby Shipley. 
All Saints' Day, A. D. 1864. 
</p><p>Digitized by Google.
</p>
<br>Subjects: Hymns; Christian Poetry, English -- 19th Century; Hymns, English; Christian Poetry, English; Religion in poetry</div>
<div class="fn value">
Shipley, Orby, 1832-1916 comp</div>
Internet Archive identifier