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Comfort In Heaven
Traditional Spiritual 1898
ARTIST: from William E. Barton, "Old Plantation Hymns"
SHEET MUSIC: http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA12&dq=comfort+in+heaven+Barton&cd=6&id=aqcNAAAAIAAJ&output=html
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel
DATE: 1800s; 1852 (Uncle Tom's Cabin) 1898 Barton
RECORDING INFO: Come Along
William E. Barton, "Old Plantation Hymns"
OTHER NAMES:
RELATED TO: "Jerusalem my happy home"
SOURCES: Folk Index; William E. Barton, "Old Plantation Hymns"
NOTES: "Comfort In Heaven" is a traditional spiritual collected from William E. Barton in his 1898 article "Old Plantation Hymns." Barton says:
[While the fitting together of couplets and refrains almost at random leads to some odd and incongruous combinations, upon the whole one is surprised to find with what good taste the mosaic is made, especially when the singing is led by an old-time leader with a wide range of couplets to choose from. Some of these men when confronted by an inquirer with notebook and pencil can hardly recall half a dozen of these stanzas; but in the fervor of their worship they not only remember them by the score, but by a sort of instinct rather than taste or judgment fit together words from different sources without a second's reflection or hesitation. It comes to pass sometimes that the words of a certain hymn attach themselves to a given refrain so that one rarely hears them separately. Here is one which I do not remember to have heard except with "Jerusalem, my happy home."]
"Jerusalem, my happy home," is an anonymous hymn dating from the latter part of the sixteenth century, sung to the tune of "St. Stephen." Words derive from St. Augustine's Meditations. Sometimes the first verse is sung to Amazing grace
Jerusalem, my happy home,
O how I long for thee!
When shall my sorrows have an end?
Thy joys when shall I see?
It's quoted exactly in the 1852 "Uncle Tom's Cabin":
Tom began a Methodist hymn:
"Jerusalem, my happy home,
Name ever dear to me!
When shall my sorrows have an end,
Thy joys when shall - "
COMFORT IN HEAVEN- Collected by William Eleazar Barton; this song has essentially the same melody for both parts.
CHORUS: There's a comfort in heaven and I feel it in my soul,
O, glory hallelujah!
There's a glory in heaven and a glory in my soul,
O, glory hallelujah!
VERSE: Jerusalem, my happy home, Name ever dear to me,
O, glory hallelujah!
When shall my labors have and end? Thy joys when shall I see?
O, glory hallelujah!
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