No. 162 Christian’s Hope or Where All Is Peace and Love, Osh 506
Heptatonic ionian, mode 3 A + b (I II III IV V VI VII)
We have our troubles here below,
We’re trav’ling through this world of woe,
To that bright world where loved ones go,
Where all is peace and love.
Where all is peace and love,
To that bright world where loved ones go,
Where all is peace and love.
We’re fettered and chained up in clay,
While in this body here we stay;
By faith we know a world above,
Where all is peace and love.
I feel no way like getting tired,
I’m trusting in his holy word,
To guide my weary feet above,
Where all is peace and love.
The Sacred Harp, edition of 1911, has the following note: “H. A. Parris, who composed the words and music to the ‘Christian’s Hope’, resides at this time, 1911, at Helicon, Alabama. He is a great lover of the old Sacred Harp tunes.” Mr. Parris composed the song by assembling, happily withal, wandering distichs and melodic phrases from songs of much older times. His chief source, both tonally and textually, was ‘Christian Prospect’ in this collection. I have been told that this spiritual grips the Sacred Harp singers’ emotions so deeply that they can hardly get to the third verse before many burst into tears.