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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

words and music  Ralph Milton Black  1893

 

Ralph Black was a Sunday School teacher and song leader at the Pine Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania from 1904 until his death in 1938.  He wrote nearly 1500 hymns, and edited several hymnals.  He served on the commission for the 1905 Methodist Hymnal.  This hymn was sung in the 1941 Oscar-winning movie, Sergeant York .

While calling roll at a youth meeting, he noticed a particular pupil did not arrive and he was disappointed.  He said something on the order of, "Well, I trust that when the roll is call up yonder she'll be there."  He tried to respond with an appropriate song but could not find one in his song book.  Black wrote:

This lack of a fitting song caused me both sorrow and disappointment. An inner voice seemed to say, “Why don’t you write one?” I put away the thought. As I opened the gate on my way home, the same thought came again so strongly that tears filled my eyes. I entered the house and sat down at the piano. The words came to me effortlessly…The tune came the same way—I dared not change a single note or word.

(With a famous hymn, a Methodist composer, and a story like this about a Methodist Sunday School class, why can I not find this in the UMH?  I will nominate this hymn as the most glaring oversight of our current hymnal.  What do you think?  Which hymn do you feel is most conspicuously absent?  E-mail me.)