[Music]
Oh, once I had a glorious view
Of my redeeming Lord;
He said, I'll be a God to you,
And I believ'd his word.
But now I have a deeper stroke
Than all my groanings are;
My God has me of late forsook,
He's gone I know not where.
Oh, what immortal joys I felt
On that celestial day,
When my hard heart began to melt,
By love dissolved away!
But my complaint is bitter now,
For all my joys are gone;
I've strayed! I'm left! I know not how;
The light's from me withdrawn.
Once I could joy the saints to meet,
To me they were most dear;
I then could stoop to wash their feet,
And shed a joyful tear;
But now I meet them as the rest,
And with them joyless stay;
My conversation's spiritless,
Or else I've nought to say.
The words appeared in _Mercer's Cluster_, a Georgia hymn and
spiritual-song collection of the 1820's. The earliest appearance of
the tune seems to have been in the _Southern Harmony_ (1835). Found
also in HH 128, UH 57, KNH 42, HOC 37, SOC 109, GOS 380, PB 343. The
tune is a variant of 'Antioch', in this collection.
For negro tune derivatives see _White Spirituals_, 259. Among the
tunes in secular environment, 'Virginian Lover', Sharp, ii., 149, tune
B, shows closest relationship to the above. See also 'Flat River
Girl', Rickaby, p. 6; and 'Driving Saw Logs on the Plover', Rickaby,
p. 89.
No. 76
YONGST, BS 203