You've Got to Be a Lover of the Lord

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, you've got to be a lover of the Lord (x3) Or you won't get to heaven when you die." "Come humble sinners... make this last resolve, Oh, you must be a lover of the Lord, Or you can't go to heaven when you die."
AUTHOR: Charles Wesley [and William Cowper]/ music: R. H. Reeves
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Sacred Harp hymnal)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad clothes humorous playparty
FOUND IN: US(SE,So) New Zealand
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 654, "You've Got to Be a Lover of the Lord" (1 fragment)
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Some Folklore of Grant County, Indiana, in the Nineties," Volume 1, Number 4 (WInter 1951), p. 260, "(Oh! You must be a lover of the Lord)" (1 short text)
Roud #7577
RECORDINGS:
Huggins & Phillips Sacred Harp Singers, "Lover of the Lord" (Vocalion 5273, rec. 1928; on Babylon)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You Won't Go to Heaven When You Die, Mary Ann (Retreat) (Bugle Call Lyric)" (lyrics)
cf. "Come, Humble Sinner, In Whose Breast" (lyrics)
NOTES [178 words]: The Huggins & Phillips Sacred Harp Singers recording adds a verse of Cowper's "Oh, For a Closer Walk with God" to the song, probably to fill out the time on the record. - PJS
For background on Cowper, see the notes to "God Moves in a Mysterious Way."
The whole song is a conundrum, because Randolph's version, e.g., includes the verse "Come humble sinners," but this exists independently without the "Lover of the Lord" chorus. After substantial hesitation, I have separated them.
Most of the field collections of this have wandered far from the source, but none perhaps as much as Sutton-Smith's New Zealand version, which has become a singing game:
Oh, you must be a lover of the Lord, of the Lord,
Or you won't go to heaven when you ie, when you die.
Oh, you must wear a collar and a tie, and a tie,
Or you won't go to heaven when you die.
Even more irreverent is the MidwestFolklore version:
Oh! You must be a lover of the Lord
If you want to go to Heaven when you die;
And you must be a lover of the landlady's daughter
If you want to get a second piece of pie. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: R654

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