There was Naaman the leper (Tindley? im Jahre 1887?)

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Haruo's picture

Could somebody check the date on the (supposedly 1887) English and German Gospel Songs, or The Ebenezer Hymnal? I find it difficult to imagine how a Tindley song could have made it into a German-American hymnal that early. There's a Tindley song that begins "There was Naaman the leper". There's also an instance in the Hymnary of a song that purports to be Tindley's in the aforecited German-American hymnal dated 1887. If the 1887 is correct, then is hymn #252 actually, as reported, Tindley's text complete with Tindley's refrain, or is it an unrelated text on the subject of Naaman the leper? Or what?

I really like this song, which Jimmie Abbington introduced me to in Birmingham; besides the actual date of first publication and its relationship if any to d252 another question I have about it is whether (as I surmise) for Tindley "Syrian" was pronounced as a homophone of "Cyrene"; that would solve some serious problems with the scansion and rhyme scheme. And is "host" really supposed to rhyme with itself, or was there originally some other word in the text for "host" to rhyme with?

Haruo