O, glory hallelujah!
She has landed many thousands, and will land as many more,
O, glory hallelujah!
Both hymn and tune have lost their creators' names, and, like many another “voice crying in the wilderness,” they have left no record of their beginning of days.
“MY BROTHER, I WISH YOU WELL.”
My brother, I wish you well,
My brother, I wish you well;
When my Lord calls I trust you will
Be mentioned in the Promised Land.
Echoes that remain to us of those fervid and affectionate, as well as resolute and vehement, expressions of religious life as sung in the early revivals of New England, in parts of the South, and especially in the Middle West, are suggestive of spontaneous melody forest-born, and as unconscious of scale, clef or tempo as the song of a bird. The above “hand-shaking” ditty at the altar gatherings apparently took its tune self-made, inspired in its first singer's soul by the feeling of the moment—and the strain was so simple that the convert could join in at once and chant—