Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Saviour, Saviour / Hear my humble cry / And while others Thou art calling / Do not pass me by." Verses ask, "help my unbelief" and "whom have I ... but Thee."
AUTHOR: Fanny J. Crosby (1868), tune: William H. Doane (1870) (source: hymnary.org)
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (Sankey)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Trinidad)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Ira D. Sankey, Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos [1200 Hymns] (London: Collins, 1921?), #488 (1880 #63), "Pass Me Not"
RECORDINGS:
Moving Star Hall Singers, "Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior" (on USSeaIsland02)
Trinidad Spiritual Baptists, "Singing at Shouters Service" (on "Cult Music of Trinidad" Folkways LP FE 4478 (1961 (recorded in 1960 by George Eaton Simpson)))
NOTES [173 words]: The USSeaIsland02 version includes three of Sankey's four verses and the chorus, and ends repeating the chorus again with increasing speed, clapping and beating on the floor.
See also The United Methodist Hymnal, (Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989), #351 p. 380, "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior" (1 text, 1 tune).
The Herskovits Trinidadian Spiritual Baptist account of "Jesus Lover of My Soul" fits the USSeaIsland02 track as well. This is a Sankey hymn, and the writers of the WITrinidadVillage02 liner notes would characterize this track as "Sankey into Shout." - BS
For background on author Fanny Crosby van Alstyne, see the notes to "A Few More Marchings Weary." For composer William Howard Doane, see the notes to "Precious Name (Take the Name of Jesus With You)."
The reference to "Help my unbelief" is to Mark 9:23-24. A man has brought his sick child to Jesus to be cured. Jesus declares that "All things will be done for the one who believes." The boy's father replies, "I believe; help my unbelief!" - RBW
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