I Would Not Live Always

DESCRIPTION: The singer offers various reasons why "I would not live always:" "Since Jesus was laid there [in the tomb], I'll not fear its gloom." "Who would live always Away from his God?" The singer looks forward to the bliss of heaven
AUTHOR: William Augustus Muhlenberg
EARLIEST DATE: 1826 (source: Julian)
KEYWORDS: religious death burial
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 630, "I Would Not Live Always" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7558
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ferrill, "I Would Not Live Always" (on CloseHomeMS)
NOTES [197 words]: The proper title of this hymn is "I Would Not Live Alway." According to John Julian, editor, A Dictionary of Hymnology, 1892; second edition 1907 (I use the 1957 Dover edition in two volumes), p. 774, this was author Muhlenberg's first significant hymn, but there were many editions over the years "1st the Original; 2nd the version given in the Prayer B[oo]k Coll[ection, 1876; 3rd the author's revised version of 1859; and the 4th his rewritten text of 1871, the second of these being that known to the hymn-books."
Julian gives this biography of Muhlenberg (there is an umlaut over the u, incidentally):
D.D., so of Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, and gradnson of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the patriarch of Lutheranism in America, was b[orn] in Philadelphia Sept 16, 1796. He graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1814. Entering Holy Orders in 1817, he was successively Assistant Rector of St. James's Lancaster, 1823; Rector of the CHurch of the Holy Communion, New York, 1843; St. Paul's College, Flushing (1828) [sic.; probably should be 1848]; St. Luke's Hospital, New York (1855); St. John's and Long Island (1865) were established by him. He d[ied] APril 6, 1877." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: R630

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