THE PILGRIM SONG (WAYFARING STRANGER)

I am a poor wayfaring stranger,
While journeying through this world of woe;
But there is no sickness, toil, no danger,
In that bright world to which I go.

I'm going there to see my classmates,
They said they'd meet me when I come;
I'm just a going over Jordan,
I'm just going over home.

I know dark clouds'll gather 'round me,
I know my road is rough and steep;
Yet there bright fields are lying just before me,
Where God's redeemed their vigils keep.

I'm going there to see my mother,
She said she'd meet me when I come;
I'm just going over Jordan,
I'm just a going over home.

I'll soon be free from every trial,
My body will sleep in the old churchyard.
I'll quit the cross of self-denial,
And enter in my great reward.

I'm going there to see my mother, etc.
(Repeat verse 4)

The Negro and His Songs, H. W. Odum and G. B. Johnson, 1925, Univ. North Carolina Press (reprint by Negro Universities Press, 1968 etc.), p. 137-138.
The Pilgrim's Song "may be called a standard hymn of the Negroes. There is a story that Bishop Allen, the founder of the African M. E. Church, composed the song on his dying bed." "While the sadly hopeful words of the song are of a higher type than the average spiritual, and while its metrical form is far above the usual, the song still combines many of the ideas and phrases of the favorite spirituals of the slaves."
Whether this story of the song's authorship is seemingly not verifiable, this version is probably as close to a "Negro" version of the song as we will get. In the hymn books of the white South (posted in another thread) are different versions, dates 1862 and 1864. I will try and check the date of Bishop Allen's death.
@religion @hymn @spiritual