I learned this well known gospel as a Rugby song in my childhood and remember singing it in 23 Mess, H.M.S. Victorious in the early sixties. We sang it straight but accompanied the song with comic gestures some of which were lewd and would be considered offensive outside naval and Rugby circles. I have a vivid memory of Arthur Copus, at that time a 3rd class shipwright, performing what I consider the definitive version of this "song with actions". I leave it to your imagination, dear surfer, to work out a gesture to match the word "coming"!
We move from the ridiculous to the sublime when we listen to the most beautiful rendering by Steffi Lubrich and her sisters Ina and Anna.
The version that I still sing (and without actions these days!) can be found in Lieder, Songs und Gospels 1. The lyrics of this version are identical to those found in The Story of the Jubilee Singers.
I was highly delighted in February, 2002, to be introduced to a recorder version which can be found in Gerald Schwertberger's Mississippi-Suite (1980) by Petra Meyer. This is also in the realms of the sublime when compared with those distant days of the early 1960's.

Lyrics