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!
May the Lord help you turn,
Oh! turn, sinners, turn,
Why will you die?
He the fatal cause demands,
Asks the work of his own hands,
Why, ye thankless creatures, why
Will you cross his love and die?
Chorus
Sinners, turn, why will ye die?
God, your Savior, asks you why!
God, who did your souls retrieve,
Died himself that ye might live.
Chorus
This tune is closely related to ‘Animation’ and, like it, to the worldly tune ‘Ropesman’ in Thomas, p. 164. The melody of the above chorus seems to have been derived from ‘Willy Taylor’, Petrie, No. 745. Compare for similarities ‘Run Nigger Run’, SS 89.