Comfort in Heaven

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "There's comfort in heaven and I feel it in my soul, O glory hallelujah, Glory in heaven and glory in my soul, O glory...." Verse: "Jerusalem is my happy home, Name ever dear to me, where shall my labors have an end? Thy joys when shall I see?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1899 (Barton-OldPlantationHymns)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 12, "Comfort in Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [253 words]: Barton-OldPlantationHymns's "Comfort in Heaven" illustrates the common practice of taking one verse, often the first, of a published hymn, and adding a chorus. Usually I would classify the resulting hymn as a variant of the published hymn. The Barton-OldPlantationHymns text is not that cut and dried, so I have left it to stand alone.
The Methodist Hymn Book (London: The Methodist Publishing House, 1933) has two related hymns. Hymn #655 p. 250, which it dates to the 16th or 17th century, begins "Jerusalem, my happy home, When shall I come to thee? When shall my sorrows have an end? Thy joys when shall I see?" [This is indexed as "Jerusalem, My Happy Home (Long Sought Home)" - RBW.]
Hymn #650 pp. 247-248, attributed to Joseph Bromehead (1748-1826), begins "Jerusalem, my happy home, Name ever dear to me! When shall my labours have an end, In joy, and peace, and thee?" So Barton-OldPlantationHymns's text mixes lines from the first verse of both hymns.
Jackson's text is very close to hymn #655, omitting some verses and adding a chorus of "Home, sweet home, my long sought home, My home in heaven above" (George Pullen Jackson, Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America (New York: J.J. Augustin, 1937 (republished by New York: Dover Publications, 1964)), #221 p. 220, "Long-Sought Home").
On the other hand, Sankey and Moody, a popular source for hymns, has hymn #650, with one verse omitted and no chorus added (Ira D. Sankey, Sacred Songs and Solos Twelve Hundred Hymns (London: Collins, n.d.), #1010). - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: Bart012B

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