Walking in the Light

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "We are walking in the light (x3), "We are walking in the light of God (x2)." Verses: "Hallelujah to the Lamb, Jesus died for every man"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute); 1893 (see notes)
KEYWORDS: Bible nonballad religious floatingverses Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 116-117, "We Are Walking in de Light (Walking in de Light)" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 102-103 in the 1901 edition) [for 1893 edition, see notes]
Roud #15255
NOTES [228 words]: Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses include the floaters, "If religion was a thing that money could buy, The rich would live and the poor would die" and "I thank God it is not so, The rich and poor together must go." The second and fourth line of each verse is "We are walking in the light."
The Biblical reference is John 1:29: John the Baptist sees Jesus coming and says, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (King James). - BS
And there are many Biblical references to the light and walking in it, especially in John, e.g. John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin"; John 1:9, "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world"; 1 John 1:5, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all"; also, John 8:12 has Jesus declare, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." - RBW
The index to the 1893 edition [of Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute] has "Walking in the Light" on page 102 (Thomas P. Fenner and Frederic G. Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation Songs (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)). I have not seen page 102. - BS
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Dett116

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