He throws his arms around the neck of his rebellious child.
Father, I’ve sinned, but O forgive; enough, the father said.
Rejoice, my house, my son’s alive for whom I mourn’d as dead.
Now let the fatted calf be slain, go spread the news around;
My son was dead, but lives again, was lost but now is found.
’Tis thus the Lord his love reveals, to call poor sinners home.
More than a father’s love he feels and welcomes all that come.
Davisson, the compiler of the SKH, claimed this tune. It functioned as the melodic material out of which the “fuguing” tune ‘Alabama’, in the Sacred Harp, was built.
No. 50
[HAPPY SOULS (A)], OL 145
Hexatonic, mode 4 A (I II — IV V VI 7)