_Blessed hope, blessed hope, We shall meet with our loved ones again, Blessed hope, blessed hope, We shall meet with our loved ones again._ Blessed hope in the word God has spoken, All our peace by that word we obtain, And as sure as God's word was never broken, We shall meet with our loved ones again. Blessed hope how it shines in our sorrows, Like the star over Bethlehem's plain, We will see our Lord ere the morrow, We shall meet with our loved ones again. Blessed hope the bright star of the morning, That shall herald his coming to reign, He will come and reward all the faithful, We shall meet with our loved ones again. (Sung by Rev. J. T. Johnson.) Such a song is neither sung to an old melody nor a new tune; it is not a spiritual; it is scarcely native nor yet borrowed. It represents the general result that comes from a free intermingling of all. To such a song there may be any number of tunes; likewise there are a great many such songs introduced and may be sung alike to simple tunes. A tune is as easily selected and rendered as are the words; words are as easily improvised, or written with some care, as the melodies are natural. But they appeal less strongly to the negroes as a rule for the simple reason that "they don't put a feelin' in you like the old songs." Thus the negro's religion is dependent upon feeling; song facilitates and intensifies the feelings, and song is the essential joy of much of the negro's life. Whenever and wherever occasion demands religious manifestation, the song is the prerequisite. Not only at the church, but at lodge celebrations, funerals and memorial services, the song begins the process of "putting a feelin'" in the congregation. Again, the stress of the negro's religion is placed upon the supernatural and the life that lies beyond his present sphere. A religious attitude is scarcely conceived by the negro without the fundamental conception of the next world. Thus is life contrasted with heaven and hell; the sinner and the righteous are but temporary; so will the souls of all one day sing with Jehovah the songs that the angels love; and there will be feeling there, too. It is thus that the central themes of the negro's religious songs reveal both his religious nature and his mental attitude, together with the emotional characteristics that predominate. And it is easily seen that the negro's imagery and imagination are scarcely surpassed. His religious fervor depends upon the reality of such imagery; the folk-song reflects this imagery as nothing else does. Again, the negro's sense of sin is ever present in a feeling of guilt in the struggle between himself and the real or the imaginary; consequently he insures himself against a final sense of guilt by strong declarations of his righteousness as opposed to the sinner's state. His sense of sin thus becomes less practical; it is rather an imaginative expression of a religious feeling.