He went up from the den of lions;
—and so on, finally announcing—
By and by we'll go home for to meet him, [three times]
Safely in the Promised Land.
The enthusiasm excited by the swinging rhythm of the tune sometimes rose to a passionate pitch, and it was seldom used in the more controlled religious assemblies. If any attempt was ever made to print the song* the singers had little need to read the music. Like the ancient runes, it came into being by spontaneous generation, and lived in phonetic tradition.
* Mr. Hubert P. Main believes he once saw “The Hebrew Children” in print in one of Horace Waters' editions of the Sabbath Bell.
A strange, wild pæan of exultant song was one often heard from Peter Cartwright, the muscular circuit-preacher. A remembered fragment shows its quality:
Then my soul mounted higher
In a chariot of fire,