got religion

“You remember we had just such a fuss as this five years ago, and old Groat and John Dunn and Sally Nix, and Polly Pines all got religion and were mighty happy; and where are they now? ”

Master William Mitten: or, A Youth of Brilliant Talents, Who Was Ruined by Bad Luck

“Tarius got religion and when the day came roun' fer the baptism 'it was a January blizzard, although well along in the month of April.”

Winona: A Tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest

“Long before they arrived the little O'Mores had crowded around and captured Billy, and he was giving them an expurgated version of Mrs. Comstock's tales of Big Foot and Adam Poe, boasting that Uncle Wesley had been in the camps of Me-shin-go-me-sia and knew Wa-ca-co-nah before he got religion and dressed like white men; while the mighty prowess of Snap as a woodchuck hunter was done full justice.”

A Girl of the Limberlost