No. 208 Give Me Jesus, Rev 89
Heptatonic ionian, mode 3 A + b (I II III IV V VI VII)
When I’m happy, hear me sing,
When I’m happy, hear me sing,
When I’m happy, hear me sing,
Give me Jesus;
Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus;
You may have all the world,
Give me Jesus.
When in sorrow, hear me pray, three times
Give me Jesus, etc.
When I’m dying, hear me cry, three times
Give me Jesus, etc.
When I’m rising, hear me shout, three times
Give me Jesus, etc.
When in heaven, we will sing, three times
Blessed Jesus, etc.
By thy grace we are saved, three times
Blessed Jesus, etc.
The noting of this tune, evidently from oral tradition, will be seen as quite faulty. A close variant of the song was found by Miss Gilchrist in the Wesleyan Psalmist and reproduced by her, JFSS, viii., 88. ‘Sweet William and Lady Margaret’, Davis, p. 570, is similar throughout to this tune. A negro version is in Marsh, p. 140, under the same title. The compilers of Slave Songs rejected a song called ‘Give Me Jesus’ as “spurious”, that is, as being of white origin. (See Slave Songs, p. vi.)