After relating how much of his time had been devoted to the task of arranging and composing Negro spirituals he sat at the piano and thrilled his audience as he sang these beautiful songs: “Weeping Mary,” “Go Down in the Lonesome Valley to Meet Your Saviour There,” “I’m Seeking for a City, Hallelujah!” “Lord, I Want to be a Christian.”
Happily there was present that day the Rev. Timothy Tingfang Lew, professor at Yengching University, Chengtu, West China. He narrated how there was produced in China a common hymnal for the leading evangelical churches, and stated that “the present Chinese hymnbook, ‘Hymns of Universal Praise,’ was the result of effective team-work.” Included in this book was, he indicated, “Lord, I Want to Be a Christian,” and suggested that they all sing it with Dr. Burleigh. Everybody liked the idea.
Two Chinese missionaries were accompanying Dr. and Mrs. Lew; so these four sang it in the Chinese language, while the others sang in English. Thus their voices blended in one of the beloved spirituals of the Negro race, while they were accompanied by a Negro on the piano.
“Lord, I want to be a Christian,
In-a my heart, in-a my heart
Lord, I want to be a Christian
In-a my heart.”
Writers of hymns, composers of tunes, church organists and choir leaders were in that company of men and women who joyfully sang the verses of that beloved spiritual, and their faces were radiant as they came to the words:
“Lord, I want to be like Jesus
In-a my heart, in-a my heart,