No. 120 Devotion, Osh 48
Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III — V VI —)
Sweet is the day of sacred rest;
No mortal cares shall seize my breast;
O may my heart in tune be found,
Like David’s harp of solemn sound.
Then shall I share a glorious part,
When grace hath well refined my heart,
And fresh supplies of joy are shed,
Like holy oil, to cheer my head.
Then shall I see, and hear, and know
All I desired and wished below;
And ev’ry power find sweet employ,
In that eternal world of joy.
Watts wrote the words. The tune is ascribed in the Sacred Harp to Americk Hall. Found also, MOH 34, GCM 91, SOH 13, UH 48, WP 17, SKH 9, GOS 548; and in Social Hymn and Tune Book (Philadelphia, 1865) under the title ‘Penitent’.
In JFSS, viii., 72, Miss Gilchrist calls attention to the likeness of the above tune to Sharp’s Appalachian versions of ‘Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard’. She also notes Miss Broadwood’s discovery of its likeness to two Gaelic tunes, ‘Tearlach Og’ in the Gesto Collection, and ‘Muile nam Morbheann’ in the Celtic Lyre. I append also ‘Lost Babe’, Sharp, ii., 161, as a further relative.