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HEDY WEST:
... a once popular religious song which tells in compression the same story as Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and which was often printed in pre-Civil War songsters and hymnals in both German and English. It was sometimes attributed to the Methodist circuit-riding preacher John B. Matthias (1767-1848). WAYWORN TRAVELER was several times recorded on hillbilly discs in the 1920s and 1930s. My grandmother heard it and sang it in church when she was a child. It may also have been one of the hymns she heard sung by the community of Germans who had immigrated to Gilmer County, Georgia, around 1900. In church they sang in German while everyone else sang simultaneously in English....

The English-American chorus... is close to the German-American chorus:

Denn Siegespalmen
Und Ehrenkronen,
Siegespalmen sind unser Lohn.

Liner notes for "Whores, Hell & Biscuits for 2 Centuries," Bear Family Records BF 15003, 1976.

The tune of this hymn was used by Bob Dylan for his own Paths of Victory.

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In the 1880s, the tune was also used by the "People's Party" for a song depicting the plight of the American Farmer, "Pans of Biscuits."

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I saw a wayworn traveler in tattered garments clad,
And struggling up the mountain, it seemed that he was sad.
His back was laden heavy, his strength was almost gone,
Yet he shouted as he journeyed ''Deliverance will come!"

CHORUS:
Then palms of victory, crowns of glory,
Palms of victory I shall wear.

The songstress in the arbor, that stood beside the way,
Attracted his attention, inviting his delay.
His watchword being "Onward!" he stopped his ears and ran,
Still shouting as he journeyed, ''Deliverance will come!"

I saw him in the evening, the sun was bending low,
He'd over-topped the mountain and reached the vale below.
He saw the golden city, his everlasting home,
And shouted loud, ''Hosanna, deliverance has come!"

I heard the song of triumph they sang upon that shore,
Saying, ''Jesus has redeemed us to suffer nevermore.''
Then casting his eyes back-ward on the race that he had run,
He shouted loud, ''Hosanna, deliverance has come!"

VERSION #2

Lyrics as recorded by The Original Carter Family, New York, NY, Jun 8, 1936
(Decca De 5240); transcribed by Manfred Helfert.

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I saw a wayworn traveler in tattered garments clad,
And struggling up the mountain, it seemed that he was sad.
His back was laden heavy, his strength was almost gone,
It [sic] shouted as he journeyed, ''Deliverance will come!"

CHORUS:
Then palms of victory, crowns of glory,
Palms of victory I shall wear.

The summer sun was shining, the sweat was on his brow,
His garments worn and dusty, his step seemed very slow.
But he kept pressing onward, for he was wending home,
Still shouting as he journeyed, "Deliverance will come!"

The songstress in the arbor, that stood beside the way,
Attracted his attention, inviting his delay.
His watchword being "Onward!" he stopped his ears and ran,
Still shouting as he journeyed, ''Deliverance will come!"

While gazing on that city, just o'er that narrow flood (?),
A band of holy angels came from the throne of God.
They bore him on their pinions, they bore the dashing foam,
And joined him in his triumph, "Deliverance has come!"