The Funeral

[00:06.04] I was walking in Savannah past a church, decayed and dim
[00:11.35] When slowly through the window came a plaintive funeral hymn
[00:16.05] And my sympathy awakened and a wonder quickly grew
[00:19.48] 'Til I found myself environed in a little colored pew
[00:24.13] Out front, a colored couple sat in sorrow nearly wild
[00:28.32] On the altar was a casket and in the casket was a child
[00:33.45] I could picture him while living, curly hair, protruding lips
[00:38.01] I'd seen perhaps a thousand in my hurried southern trips
[00:43.38] Rose a sad, old colored preacher from his little wooden desk
[00:47.57] With a manner sort of awkward and countenance grotesque
[00:52.23] The simplicity and shrewdness in his Ethiopian face
[00:56.64] Showed the wisdom and the ignorance of a crushed, undying race
[01:02.23] And he said, "Now don't be weepin' for this pretty bit of clay
[01:07.92] For the little boy who lived there has done gone and run away
[01:13.29] He was doing very finely and he 'ppreciates your love
[01:17.61] But his sure 'nough father wanted him in the big house up above
[01:22.84] The Lord didn't give you that baby, by no hundred thousand miles
[01:28.37] He just think you need some sunshine and he lent it for a while
[01:33.56] And he let you keep and love it 'til your hearts was bigger grown
[01:38.03] And these silver tears you're shedding now, is just interest on the loan
[01:43.73] Just think my poor dear mourners creeping long on sorrows way
[01:49.18] What a blessed picnic this here baby got today
[01:53.79] Your good fathers and good mothers crowd the little fella 'round
[01:58.31] In the angels' tender garden of the big plantation ground
[02:04.24] And his eyes they brightly sparkle at the pretty things he view
[02:09.16] But a tear came and he whispered, "I want my parents too"
[02:14.67] But then the angel's chief musician teach that little boy a song
[02:19.89] Says if only they be faithful, they'll soon be comin' 'long
[02:24.72] So my poor detached mourners, let your hearts with Jesus rest
[02:30.38] And don't go to criticizin' the one what knows the best
[02:35.78] He have give us many comforts, He's got the right to take away
[02:41.36] To the Lord be praised in glory, forever, let us pray
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