53 God be with you till we meet again. God be with you. 4v

Poet: Jeremiah E. Rankin, 1880. Meter: 98.89 with Refrain.
From some time in the 1800s it became popular to add refrains or choruses to songs to highlight central and recurring teachings or ideas. This is a good example. Earlier poets like Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley would not have envisioned choruses like these and they were often added to older hymns in the mid- to later 1800s. In this case, though, the repeating refrain was part of Rankin’s design.