sentences:  Harry Dixon Loes, who studied at the Moody Bible Institute and the American Conservatory of Music, was a musical composer and teacher, who wrote or co-wrote several other gospel songs.The song has since entered the folk tradition, first being collected by John Lomax in 1939.Often thought of as an African-American spiritual, it can be found in The United Methodist Hymnal, #585, adapted by William Farley Smith in 1987.