Highbridge (Through Every Age, Eternal God)

DESCRIPTION: Shape note hymn: "Through every age, eternal God, thou art our rest, our safe abode; High was thy throne ere heav'n was made Or earth thy humble footstool laid." "Death, like an overflowing stream, Sweeps us away; Our life's a dream, an empty tale..."
AUTHOR: Words: Isaac Watts
EARLIEST DATE: 1707
KEYWORDS: religious Bible nonballad death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 155, "Highbridge" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Gerald L. Pocius, "Folk Religion And The Ethnography Of Literacy: The Image Of The Word On Newfoundland Gravestones," essay on pp. 259-286 of Gerald Thomas and J. D. A. Widdowson, editors, _Studies in Newfoundland Folklore: Community and Process_, Breakwater Books, 1991, p. 270, "(Death like an overflowing stream)" (1 short inscription, from 1812)
Roud #15052
RECORDINGS:
Singers from Stewart's Chapel, Houston, MS, "Stratfield" (on Fasola1)
NOTES [70 words]: This is set to the tune "Highbridge" in the Missouri Harmony but to "Stratfield" in the Sacred Harp. There is a second Sacred Harp version, opening with the "Death, like an overflowing stream" stanza, which has the most evocative tune-name "Exit."
The "Death like an overflowing stream" stanza is in the Missoury Harmony with the tune Amanda.
For more on Isaac Watts, see the notes to "O God, Our Help in Ages Past." - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: San155

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