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Done with the World/I Don't Expect to Stay
Traditional Spiritual and Bluegrass Gospel/Shape Note Hymn
ARTIST: From EC Perrow; No. 25, IV Religious Songs and Parodies of Religious Songs, E. C. Perrow, 1913, "Songs and Rhymes from the South," Part 2. Jour. American Folklore, vol. 26, pp. 123-173
YOUTUBE:
SHEET MUSIC:
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: probably 1800s; 1908
RECORDING INFO: Done with the World
Us - I Don't Expect to Stay
Rt - Run to Jesus
Jackson, George P.(ed.) / Spiritual Folk Songs of Early America, Dover, Sof (1964/1937), p211/#209 (Done with the World)
OTHER NAMES: "Done with the World" "I Don't Expect to Stay Much Longer Here" "Jesus, My All To Heav’n Is Gone"
RELATED TO: "I Want to Go Where Jesus Is" "Run To Jesus"
SOURCES: The Journal of American Folk-lore, Volumes 25-26 by American Folklore Society
NOTES: "Done with the World" is a traditional spiritual and shape-note song found in the original Sacred Harp and 1991 edition. The tune is attributed to B. F. White, 1844 with words by John Cennick, 1843. The song is arranged in the spiritual style call-and-response style:
Jesus, my all, to heav’n is gone,
And I don’t expect to stay much longer here.
He whom I fix my hopes upon,
And I don’t expect to stay much longer here.
Versions of this hymn, the spirituals titled "Run To Jesus" and "I Want To Go Where Jesus Is", were collected and published in the 1800s:
"Run To Jesus"- Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895) wrote: We meant to reach the North, and the North was our Canaan," and he wrote that the lines of another spiritual:
Run to Jesus, shun the danger,
I don't expect to stay much longer here.
Oh, I thought I heard them say,
There were lions in the way.
Run to Jesus, shun the danger,
I don't expect to stay much longer here.
In R. Nathaniel Dett's Religious Folk-Songs of the Negro, the introduction to "Run to Jesus, Shun the Danger" (credited to the Fisk Collection) provides this background: "This song was given to the Jubilee Singers by Hon. Frederick Douglass, at Washington, D. C, with the interesting statement, that it first suggested to him the thought of escaping from slavery.
"I Want To Go Where Jesus Is"-In the 1898 article, Old Plantation Hymns, William Eleazar Barton published "I Want To Go Where Jesus Is" with the verse: Jesus, my all to heav’n is gone.
"I Want to Go Where Jesus Is" was recorded by Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Quartet
at the Bristol sessions and is a popular black gospel song by Dr. C.J. Johnson and also Dorothy Norwood.
The "Jesus, My All To Heav’n Is Gone" text is found in other early collections:
Jerusalem; Southern Harmony no. 11; Composer: Wm. Walker
1. Jesus, my all, to heav'n is gone,
He whom I fix my hopes upon;
His track I see, and I'll pursue
The narrow way, till him I view.
2. The way the holy prophets went,
The road that leads from banishment,
The King's highway of holiness,
I'll go, for all his paths are peace.
3. This is the way I long have sought,
And mourned because I found it not;
My grief a burden long has been,
Because I was not saved from sin.
4. The more I strove against its power,
I felt its weight and guilt the more;
Till late I heard my Savior say,
"Come hither, soul, I am the way."
5. Lo! glad I come; and thou, blest Lamb,
Shalt take me to thee, as I am;
Nothing but sin have I to give;
Nothing but love shall I receive.
6. Then will I tell to sinners round,
What a dear Savior I have found;
I'll point to thy redeeming blood,
And say, "Behold the way to God."
Refrain: I'm on my journey home,
To the new Jerusalem,
So fare you well,
I am going home.
15O. L. M. Cennick: A New Selection of Seven hundred Evangelical Hymns: John Dobell, Isaac Watts - 1810
1 JESUS, my all, to heav'n is gone—,
He whom I fix my hopes upon;
His track I see, and I'll pursue
The narrow way 'till him I view.
2 The way the holy prophet went,
The road that leads from banishment,
The king's high-way of holiness
I'll go, for all his paths are peace.
3. No stranger shall proceed therein,
No lover of the world and sin,
No lion, no devouring care,
No sin, nor sorrow shall be there.
4 No—nothing shall go up thereon,
But trav'ling souls, and I am one;
Way-faring men, to Canaan bound,
Shall only in the way be found.
5 This is the way I long have sought,
And mourn'd because I found it not;
My grief my burden long has been,
Because I could not cease from sin.
6 The more I strove against its pow'r,
I sinn'd and stumbled but the more;
'Till late I heard my Saviour say,
"Come hither, soul, I am the way."
7 Lo! glad I come, and thou, blest Lamb,
Shalt take me to thee as I am;
My sinful self to thee I give—
Nothing but love I shall receive.
8 Then will I tell to sinners round,
What a dear Saviour I have found;
I'll point to thy redeeming blood,
And say, behold the way to God.
88t Done With the World; Tune: B. F. White, 1844; Words: John Cennick, 1843
Meter: Long Meter Half (8,8)
Jesus, my all, to heav’n is gone,
And I don’t expect to stay much longer here.
He whom I fix my hopes upon,
And I don’t expect to stay much longer here.
I am done with the world,
And I want to serve the Lord,
And I don’t expect to stay much longer here.
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