The South Australian church hymnbook was compiled by the Colonial Chaplain, the Rev. Charles Howard in 1838, to enliven the 'dolorous singing' of the early colonists. It was the first book published in South Australia. Many of the hymns are still sung in churches today. In 1860 the Rev. Thomas Playford also published a local hymnbook, and further collections were published in German for use in the Lutheran churches of the state. The historian Brauer describes how in this period the pastor or lay-reader often read out the hymns line by line, as not everyone had their own hymn books, with the congregation singing back each line. An embellished story is told of a lay-reader who at the evening service in a Lutheran church picked up his glasses in the dark and found someone had smeared them with candle grease as a practical joke. He cried out in German 'Wass ist denn das mit meiner Brille!' The organist began to play and the congregation sang the line back, which in English was: 'Oh what has happened to my glasses!'