Saturday Soundtrack: Singing Theology

I was six years old and it was a Sunday night service and we sang this song. My Dad, one of the the best preachers in the Pentecostal style (I've heard hundreds of them so I think I am a fair judge.) used it as the launching pad for a sermon on the resurrection of the dead and the second coming of our Lord. I remember his exact words. As the last word of the song was being drawn out and before the last last note faded away his voice rose above all the others and he said...

"O Church, don't think this isn't true. Don't think for a minute it isn't true. The Angel asked 'why are you standing there looking up? Jesus is coming back in the clouds the same way he left.' We have the assurance of the Apostle Paul that 'the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air...'"

And he was off like a race horse at the sound of the bell.

I'm sure I was in the room many times when this song was being sung but that summer night I really heard it for the first time. It was like my ears were open in a way that has seldom been experienced since. And the song prepared me to hear the words of the angel and of St. Paul that my Dad was going to quote at the start of his sermon.

I have never forgotten. It is still my hope. Sometimes, on warm nights like tonight I find myself humming this song. I think tomorrow, after the Divine Liturgy I'll teach it to my boys.





James Black, 1893 (Rev.20:12)

1. When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more,
And the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair;
When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore,
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.
* Refrain:
When the roll is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.
2. On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise,
And the glory of His resurrection share;
When His chosen ones shall gather to their home beyond the skies,
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.
3. Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun,
Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care;
Then when all of life is over, and our work on earth is done,
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.