No. 36 Salutation or Good Morning Brother Pilgrim, Gos 298
Hexatonic, mode 2 A (I II 3 IV V — 7)
Good morning, brother pilgrim, What, bound for Canaan’s coast?
March you to Jerusalem To join the heav’nly host?
Pray, wherefore are you smiling, While tears run down your face?
We soon shall cease from toiling And reach that heav’nly place;
And reach that heav’nly place,
We soon shall cease from toiling And reach that heav’nly place.
To Canaan’s coast we’ll hasten, to join the heavenly throng;
Hark, from the banks of Jordan, how sweet the pilgrims’ song!
Their Jesus they are viewing, by faith we see him, too,
We smile and weep and praise him, and on our way pursue;
(repeated as above)
Though sinners do despise us and treat us with disdain,
Our former comrades slight us, esteem us low and mean;
No earthly joy shall charm us while marching on our way,
Our Jesus will defend us in the distressing day.
The frowns of old companions we’re willing to sustain,
And, in divine compassion, to pray for them again;
For Christ, our loving Savior, our Comforter and Friend,
Will bless us with his favor and guide us to the end.
With streams of consolation, we’re filled as with new wine,
We die to transient pleasures, and live to things divine,
We sink in holy raptures, while viewing things above,
While, glory to my Savior, my soul is full of love.
This is evidently a marching tune and from the eighteenth century vintage. It occurs also OSH 153, SOC 216, HH 387. ‘Walking on the Levy’ (Newell, Games and Songs of American Children, p. 231) has a similar beginning. Echoes of the text are found in Dett, p. 8:
Good mornin’, brother trav’ler,
Pray tell me where you’re bound,
I’m bound for Canaan’s happy land,
And de enchanted ground.
Stephen Foster’s ‘Farewell My Lily Dear’ and ‘The Soldier’s Home’ show relationship to the tune. (See my article in The Musical Quarterly, vol. xxii., No. 2.) For the English source of this dialogue type of song, see the note under ‘Warrenton’ in this collection.