Hymn of the Week: October 3, 2022

Hymn of the Week: When the Roll is Called Up Yonder

Music and Text James E. Black 1893

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. [Refrain]

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. [Refrain]

Today’s story comes from Robert Morgan’s book Then Sings My Soul: 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories. 2011

This old favorite was inspired by disappointment. James Black was calling roll one day for a youth meeting at his church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. One name didn’t answer – young Bessie, the daughter of an alcoholic. Crestfallen at her absence, James commented, “O God, when my own name is called up yonder, may I be there to respond!” Returning home, a thought struck him while opening the front gate. He went to the piano and set the words and music effortlessly.

Years later, this song comforted a group of traumatized children in a Japanese concentration camp. In his book, A Boy’s War, David Mitchell, tells of being in a boarding school in Chefoo, China, during the Japanese invasion. On November 5, 1942, the students and faculty were marched from their camp and eventually ended up in Weihsien Concentration Camp.

Among the students was Brian Thompson, a lanky teenager. One evening about a year before the war ended, Brian was restless, waiting for the evening roll call which was long overdue. A bare wire from the searchlight tower was sagging low, and some of the older boys were jumping up and touching it with their fingers. “Whew, I got a shock off that,” said one.

Brian decided to try. Being taller than the others, his hand was drawn into the wire and it came down with him. When his bare feet hit the damp ground, the electricity shot through him like bolts of lightning. His mother, who had been interred with the students, tried to reach him, but the others held her back or she, too, would have been electrocuted. Finally, someone found an old wooden stool and managed to detach the electrical wire, but it was too late.

At roll call that night, when the name “Brian Thompson” was called, there was no answer. David Mitchell later wrote: “Our principal and Mr. Houghton led a very solemn yet triumphal funeral service the next day. The shortness of life and the reality of eternity were brought home to us with force as Paul Bruce related that Brian has missed the roll call in camp but had answered the one in Heaven. How important it was for us to sing and know, “When the Roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.”