When The Roll is Called Up Yonder
A Sunday School teacher met a lost young girl and invited her to his class. Her absence at one of their future lessons led to this classic hymn about our names being read out one day in glory! Hear the story and a deep look at the words in today's episode.
Welcome to Friday Classic Hymns. Today we're looking at a powerful song that speaks about the resurrection life that we will enjoy. Before today, I'd only sung this song twice. The first was at my great-gran's funeral. She died at the age of 99. I think I was a young teenager, and I didn't have a clue what the song meant. When the Roll is Called Up Yonder—I remember thinking, what are we talking about here? For me, rolls are things that you eat. In fact, I remember coming to the States a few years back, and our hosts took us to a place called the home of the thrown roll. Everyone was throwing rolls around the restaurant—it was great! "Yonder"—that's a word you only really hear in Louis L'Amour books, isn't it?
Then at the end of last year, my great-uncle Cookie died, and we went to his funeral out in Standerton. We sang the song at the end, and I sat and looked at these words and thought, what wonderful words! By the way, Uncle Cookie was a pastor here in South Africa. At his funeral, I was so inspired by what was said that I recorded a week's worth of daily devotions on his life. I'd love for you to check those out and just be blessed by his life, even though he's been gone now for about a year.
The song became one that I went and listened to, to try to understand a little bit more about what was said. It's an interesting song. Do you have a memory of this hymn? Does it mean something to you in your life? Maybe you've sung it at a particular church, or maybe it's been an important part of your journey. Please share your memories and your thoughts in the comments below. If you love classic hymns, join me here on a Friday as I take one of the old favourites, look at its history and its lyrics, and then sing it. I'd love for you to subscribe to the channel and hit that little notification bell so that you don't miss a video.
The Story Behind "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder"
A man named James M. Black wrote the song. He was born in 1856, and according to the Ambassador Book of Hymns, which is one of the books I use for research, he was kidnapped at the age of eight from his home in Scotland and brought over to Canada. He was rescued somehow by a minister and grew up in this minister's home. At the age of 17, he went back to Scotland and reconnected with his father.
Then he decided to come to America. While he was on his way to America, he heard the news that his home in Scotland had been burnt down. That was when he wrote a famous song of his, "Where Jesus Is, 'Tis Heaven There." I don't know that one—do you know that one? I wonder.
He was an excellent musician and had been from a young age. He wrote hundreds of hymns—I think 1,500-plus hymns. He taught music, edited many Methodist hymnals, and became active as a Sunday school teacher in the Pine Street Methodist Church in Pennsylvania in the 1900s. That's where the story of this hymn takes place.
He was walking the streets one day and encountered a poor, ragged 14-year-old girl. Her story was that she lived in a home of drunkards and was just really not well off. He invited her to his Sunday school class. She began attending. When he was taking roll call in his classes, Mr. Black would call out the student's name, and they would have to recite a Bible verse to say that they were there.
One day he was taking roll call for his class, and he called out her name. There was silence. He looked up, and she wasn't there. This is what he said about that moment:
"I spoke about what a sad thing it would be when our names are called from the Lamb's Book of Life if one of us should be absent. I said, 'Oh God, when my own name is called up yonder, may I be there to respond.'"
He then took out his hymn book, looking for a song to sing to kind of put his point across to his class, and he couldn't find one. On his way home, he was wondering to himself if he could look for a hymn on that theme. Then the thought came to him: why don't I write one myself?
He arrived home, and his wife could see that he was in a funny mood and asked him what was wrong. He didn't reply because just at that moment the words of the first verse came into his mind. Black says this: "In 15 minutes or more, I had composed the other two verses. Going to the piano, I played the music just as it is found today in the hymn books, note for note. I have never dared to change a single word or note of the music since."
The song was born and became instantly popular.
Sadly, the young girl died of pneumonia a short time later. But from this whole experience came a classic song that has meant a lot to a lot of people over the years.
Black was a controversial character, a little arrogant it seems. Look at this little passage that he wrote in a letter when they were asking to publish one of his songs:
"It is the common consent of all people everywhere that 'When the Roll is Called Up Yonder' is the greatest song that has ever been written for the past 25 years. I am of that opinion myself."
A little prideful, maybe. To be honest, compared to some of the great hymns that we've looked at in this series, I don't know that you could call this the greatest. It's certainly very good, but the greatest? I don't think so. Nonetheless, it is a good song, and it makes us think about some deep themes.
Now, Black died at the age of 84 in a car accident. But as I say every week, he lives on through his music. This is the one song of his that has really kept going and that people still sing today in churches. Do you sing it in your church? I'd love to know.
What Do the Lyrics of "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" Mean?
Verse 1
Verse 1 says this:
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.
Of course, the trumpet is something that is spoken of in Scripture. Jesus spoke about the trumpet call when He comes again. Paul spoke about a trumpet sounding when Jesus comes again and the dead in Christ shall rise. That's a common theme in these old hymns—waiting for the trumpet sound, which signifies His coming.
I like that phrase "time shall be no more." God is above time, of course. Time is one of the things that constrains us in our lives. We look forward to the day when there is no more time.
This picture of morning breaking, eternal, bright and fair—a new dawn, a new era when we are now with Him. Oh wow, isn't that a thought?
Those words about when the saved of earth shall gather—that's also a great thought. All the saved, millions, will be gathered together when Jesus comes again. We'll be with Him. Oh wow! We will see each other again. We'll see all the people that we love and that we learned from. We'll even see those who we didn't particularly like but who were saved, and all that stuff will be gone. There'll be no room for it anymore because we'll be so enamoured by the glory of Christ. Oh well, it's going to be a great day!
Then he says, "When the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there." That's how the chorus goes on. He says it four times: When the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.
Think of that story of him calling out that girl's name and her not responding, and him saying, "When God calls my name, I'm going to be there."
I guess this is a little bit of a false picture of what's going to happen. God's not going to take a roll call and be surprised, look up and say, "Oh my goodness, I expected this child to be here—they're not here." That's not what it's going to be like. Because the Bible says this in Revelation: "The one who is victorious will be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the Book of Life but will acknowledge that name before My Father and His angels." That's Jesus Himself.
Then what about this in Revelation 20: "Anyone whose name was not found written in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire."
God knows whose name is in the Book of Life and whose name isn't. It's not a case of Him being surprised when someone He expects to be there isn't.
However, this speaks to assurance—Christian assurance, one of the great doctrines of our faith. Mr. Black had a great assurance that he would be there when the Book of Life is opened and the names read out. He believed it in his heart.
Just the other day, I was speaking to somebody who said, "Well, I don't know if I'm going to heaven. Who am I to say that?" I just say, you can know. You can be assured that you're a child of God.
In fact, I remember in my own studies as a Methodist lay preacher—and then I was a Nazarene—I studied a bunch of John Wesley's sermons. One of them was on Christian assurance. He wrapped it all up with a verse in Romans 8:16, which says: "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God."
He preaches this whole sermon about how we can know that we are children of God. The Spirit Himself will testify alongside our spirit that we are saved, that we are His. We don't need to worry.
I think this is true: if you've been saved, you know it. You know that He has pulled you up from the raging sea and saved you. You know that you're not floundering anymore in terms of your eternal salvation because you're relying on Him and not yourself. You've placed your faith in Him, and He has saved you.
If you're relying on yourself, if you're saying, "Well, I hope I'm good enough," then you'll never have assurance. Then you'll say, "I hope I'll be there when the roll is called. I hope I've been good enough." You won't have been. None of us will have been good enough.
But if we know that He has saved us, then we can say, "I know that when the names are read out from the Book of Life, mine will be there—not because of what I've done, but because of what He did for me."
Verse 2
Verse 2 says:
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.
The same themes: the new morning, the gathering of the people of God together with Him.
This reminded me actually of Uncle Cookie, the man I spoke to you about at the beginning of the video. He preached at my gran's funeral—that was his sister. If you go and look at those daily devotions I spoke about, you'll hear this. He said in that sermon at my gran's funeral, "So many people think that when they die, they're going to say to Jesus, 'Why this?' and 'Why that?' and 'Why, why, why?'"
He said, "No, no." He said, "When you see the glory of the resurrected Christ, you're going to fall on your face as if dead." He used Revelation 1, where that happened to John. John saw the risen Christ, and he fell down like he was paralysed in awe and wonder.
We're going to share in this resurrected glory of Christ. We're going to have no time for those burden questions because His glory is going to overwhelm us. Oh wow, what a day it's going to be! We've got assurance, don't we, that we'll be there.
Verse 3
Verse 3 says this:
Let us labour 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.
This is an important verse because, you see, it's so easy for us to become—how do they say it?—so heavenly minded that we're no earthly good. We don't want to be that way. We want to labour and work for God while we're here, from the dawn until setting sun. We want to work for God.
I love how Paul would say things like this. He would say, "We labour and we strive because we have such great belief in the message of Jesus." Are you striving and labouring to get the good news of God out there, to touch the world with His love? Are you talking of His wondrous love and care, doing good deeds and also talking about it so that people can hear your testimonies and your experience of Jesus and His saving love?
Well, let's keep doing it. Let's keep doing it right till the end. Then when our time is done and the names are read out, we will be there.
Conclusion
What a great hymn! What words stood out for you here? Anything in particular? It's a song of great hope, isn't it?
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Let's celebrate the day that we're looking forward to, when the dead in Christ shall rise and our names are called!
References
Kenneth W. Osbeck. 101 More Hymn Stories. 1985. Kregel Publications: Grand Rapids
John McLelland. The Ambassador Book of Great Hymn Stories. 1994. Ambassador Productions Ltd: Belfast
