’Tis but the voice that Jesus sends
To call them to his arms.
Are we not tending upward too,
As fast as time can move?
Nor would we wish the hours more slow,
To keep us from our love.
For variant forms of the tune see ‘[Marion]’ and ‘[I Will Arise]’ in this collection. Among its related secular tunes are ‘Greenwood Siding’ (‘Cruel Mother’), Cox, p. 522; an unnamed tune in Petrie, No. 193; ‘Oh Love it is a Killing Thing’, Petrie, No. 469; and ‘When First I left Old Ireland’, Petrie, No. 863. A remarkable tune resemblance and one which opens to the imagination surprising vistas as to the possible age of the ‘New Orleans’ tune, is to be seen in the Whitsuntide church melody ‘Iam Christus astra ascenderat’ from the eleventh century:
Iam Christus astra ascenderat regressus unde venerat.
The same melodic trend is seen also in the German tune set to ‘Christ der du bist der helle Tag’ from the year 1568. See Hymns Ancient and Modern, Nos. 178 and 604.