No. 177 Exhilaration or Then My Troubles Will Be Over or I Never Shall Forget the Day, Osh 170
Hexatonic, mode 3 A (I II III — V VI VII)
O may I worthy prove to see
The saints in full prosperity,
Then my troubles will be over.
To see the bride, the glitt’ring bride,
Close seated by my Savior’s side,
Then my troubles will be over.
I never shall forget the day
When Jesus wash’d my sins away,
And then my troubles will be over;
Will be over, will be over and rejoicing,
And then my troubles will be over.
I’ll praise him while he gives me breath,
I hope to praise him after death.
Then my troubles will be over.
I hope to praise him when I die,
And shout salvation as I fly,
Then my troubles will be over.
Chorus
I soon shall pass the vale of death,
And in his arms resign my breath.
O then my happy soul shall tell,
My Jesus has done all things well.
Chorus
Then shall I see my blessed God,
And praise him in his bright abode.
My theme to all eternity
Shall glory, glory, glory be.
Chorus.
I have no information as to the tune excepting that it appeared in the earliest edition of the Sacred Harp, that is, in 1844. The tune and the words of its chorus have served the negroes in the construction of ‘Almost Over’, SS, No. 97.