No. 218 Old-Time Religion
Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III — V VI —)
’Tis the old-time religion,
The old-time religion,
’Tis the old-time religion,
It’s good enough for me.
Subsequent verses have “It was good for Paul and Silas” and for practically everybody. It is the author’s recording from memory of hearing it sung at meetings of both negroes and whites. Sharp, ii., 291, has the above tune with a judgment-day text under the title ‘Sinner Man’, a song which had come from negro sources.