This typical spiritual was taken into the 1859 edition of the Sacred Harp. Other stanzas were added by simply substituting in the place of “preachers,” the words “fathers,” “mothers,” etc. A negro version of tune and words is in Slave Songs, No. 24.
No. 157
[SINNERS TURN], OL 266
Heptatonic, essentially aeolian, mode 2 A + b (I II 3 [III] IV V 6 [VI] 7)
Sinners, turn, why will ye die?
God, your maker asks you why.
God who did your being give,
Made you with himself to live.
Chorus
Oh! turn, sinners, turn!