The religious ballads by and large are folk-produced beyond any
reasonable doubt. They are uniformly songs for individual singing, not
for groups. The sung _story_ was the thing. In one ballad it would be
the story of some bad woman, Wicked Polly for example, "who died in
sin and deep despair" and went to hell; in another, of some good
woman, the Romish Lady for instance, who was burned at the stake for
espousing the Protestant cause. Much ballad material was furnished
also by the Bible. Scriptural events like the curing of the man sick
with the palsy, the restoring of sight to blind Bartimeus, Daniel's
experience in the lions' den, the raising of Lazarus, the baby Moses
in the rushes, the Prodigal Son parable, the birth of Christ, His
crucifixion and death,--all are retold in the ballads.
A younger variety of song which I include under the heading of
_religious ballads_ is that in which the singer tells his story in the
first person. Such stories are those of the poor wayfaring stranger
just a-going over Jordan, the departing preacher or missionary, a
dying boy or girl, and even a pious gold hunter dying on his way to
California. The story may be also the plaint of the religious
"mourner", the backslider, and the criminal sinner, or the exultant
tale of the saved. Still another group of ballads is aimed more
directly at the conversion of the "young, the gay, and proud." They
usually begin by telling the religious experience of the singer and
close with a warning as to the tragic results of worldliness and an
exhortation to turn from "this vain world of sin." These songs are
quite similar to the worldly ballads in form, and their tunes are, as
will be pointed out presently, of the common folk stock.