Deliverance Will Come

I saw a wayworn traveler

Author: John B. Matthias
Tune: [I saw a wayworn traveler]
Published in 111 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 I saw a wayworn trav'ler
In tatter'd garments clad,
His back was laden heavy,
His strength was almost gone,
And struggling up the mountain
It seem'd that he was sad;
Yet he shouted as he journeyed,
Deliverance will come.

2 The summer sun was shining,
The sweat was on his brow,
But he kept pressing onward,
For he was wending home;
His garments worn and dusty,
His step seem'd very slow;
Still shouting as he journeyed,
Deliverance will come.

3 The songsters in the arbor,
That stood beside the way,
His watchword being "Onward!"
He stopped his ears and ran,
Attracted his attention,
Inviting his delay;
Still shouting as he journeyed,
Deliverance will come.

4 I saw him in the evening,
The sun was bending low,
He'd overtopped the mountain,
And reached the vale below:
He saw the golden city,
His everlasting home,
And shouted loud, Hosanna,
Deliverance will come!

5 While gazing on that city,
Just o'er the narrow flood,
A band of holy angels
Came from the throne of God;
They bore him on their pinions
Safe o'er the dashing foam;
And joined him in his triumph,
Deliverance had come!

6 I heard the song of triumph
They sang upon that shore,
Saying, Jesus has redeemed us
To suffer nevermore;
Then, casting his eyes backward
On the race which he had run,
He shouted loud, Hosanna,
Deliverance has come!

Source: International Song Service: with Bright Gems from fifty authors, for Sunday-schools, gospel meetings, missionary and young people's societies, prayer-meetings, etc. #165

Author: John B. Matthias

Born: January 21, 1767, Germantown, New York. Died: May 27, 1848, Hempstead, Long Island, New York. Buried: Methodist churchyard, Hempstead, Long Island, New York. Matthias moved to New York City as a young man, and attended the John Street Methodist Church. He was licensed as a Methodist preacher in 1793, and four years later Bishop Asbury ordained him a deacon. He entered the "itinerant connection" in 1811, and in 1813 Bishop McKendree ordained him an elder. He pastored at a number of locations in New York, and by 1836 was in Huntington, where he wrote Deliverance Will Come. In 1841, failing eyesight forced him to retire to Hempstead, Long Island. Sources: Choir Herald, June 1947, pp. 222-23 http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: I saw a wayworn traveler
Title: Deliverance Will Come
Author: John B. Matthias
Language: English
Refrain First Line: Then palms of victory, crowns of glory
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

This tune is likely the work of the composer named here, but has also been attributed to others as shown in the instances list.

Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #1213
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Instances

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The Cyber Hymnal #1213

Include 110 pre-1979 instances
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