This version of Keep Your Lamp etc is included in the book "
'Lost Delta Found: A Chronicle of Mississippi Music' by Michele Norris . The book was reviewed on NPR's "All Things Considered, November 24, 2005 ·

"In the summer of 1941, a relatively unknown musicologist from Fisk University in Nashville accompanied the legendary folklorist Alan Lomax on a research trip to the American South.

John Work, an African American trained in classical music, was interested in the musical traditions of rural life. Work and Lomax headed to Coahoma County in the Mississippi Delta -- where they documented the music heard in churches, blues joints and cotton fields.

The oldest person found in Coahoma County was Lucy Adams. A hundred and four years old, blind, and unable to control her memory, she would sit in her rocking chair and entertain herself for hours by singing in an uncertain and quavering voice. Usually she sang only snatches of songs and sometimes she confused one with another. Her favorite was one she said her grandfather had sung:

Mary's the bosom bearer and Jesus is her child
Mary's the bosom bearer and Jesus is her child
Keep your lamp trimmed and burning
Keep your lamp trimmed and burning
For your work's most done.

- - - - - - -

Sister don't get weary
Sister don't get weary
Sister heaven's just before you
Sister heaven's just before you
Keep your lamp trimmed and burning
For your work's most done.

- - - - - - -

Brother don't get weary, etc...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5024892