Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus.
Steal away, steal away home, I got long to stay here.
Steal away, steal away home, I got long to stay here.
On the altar was a coffin, and in the coffin lay a child.
Roses sat old Negro preacher at a little wooden desk
with a manner grandly awkward, with a countenance grotesque.
And he said, now don't be weeping for this little bit of clay,
for this little boy.
He doesn't live there, he doesn't go on and run away.
He's doing very fine, and he appreciates your love.
But his sure enough father wants him in the large house up above.
Now he didn't give you that baby by no hundred thousand miles.
He just think you need some sunshine, so he let it for a while.
He let you love and keep it till your heart was bigger grown.
And these silver tears you're shedding ain't as thin as on the lawn.
So my poor dejected mourners, let your hearts with Jesus rest.
And don't go criticizing the one that know it the best.
He give us many comforts, and he's got the right to take away.
To the Lord we praise in glory.
Amen.
Now and ever, let us pray.
My Lord calls me, he calls me by the thunder.
The trumpet sounds within my soul.
I ain't got long.
Long to stay here.
I ain't got long to stay here.
There was a song that Tex Ritter recorded called Hillbilly Heaven.
And I was realistically thinking about the situation and how great it must be for those
great entertainers and musicians who've passed on and have nothing else to do but for the rest of eternity but to play for the Lord.
And I feel a lot of them were called away at an early stage in their careers just because the Lord wanted to book them.
And if this idea is true, I'm sure that Hank Williams' opening song must have been I Saw the Light.