Miles Mark Fisher notes in Negro Slave Songs in the United States (1953), The song's use at communion services probably dates from after the American Civil War. The most notable alteration in the Psalter Hymnal is the phrase "to the Lord of life" in place of the original "to the rising sun," in which "sun" was an ambiguous metaphor referring to God. A look through modern hymnals will reveal an array of variations on the text. Other stanzas have been added by oral tradition. Some of the stanzas of this African American spiritual may date back to the eighteenth century.
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