Hello, this is pastor gary from first baptist church of laplata. This Sunday, we will be singing the hymn, “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder.” It’s a peppy tune that dates back 129 years to 1893. James Black was a youth Sunday School teacher who took the class roll every Sunday by calling each student’s name and expecting a recited Bible verse in response. When he called the name of a 14-year-old girl whom he had met in an alley whose father was an alcoholic, she did not answer. He began to be burdened for those whose names were not in the Lamb’s Book of Life, the heavenly roll, stating, “how sad …it would be when our names are called from the Lamb’s Book of Life if one of us should be absent.” James Black went home after Sunday School and wrote the hymn lyrics in fifteen minutes then sat down at the piano and composed the tune right away. He later learned that the little girl whose absence had inspired the hymn had pneumonia; in those pre-antibiotic days, death from pneumonia was likely, and that’s what happened to the teenage girl. When the Roll is Called Up Yonder was debuted at the girl’s funeral and has been a staple of church music ever since. When the roll is called in heaven, I’ll be there…will you?
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