Attendance May Be Taken One day James M. Black of Williamsport, Pennsylvania impulsively cut through an alley to save time on his way to the post office. As he hurriedly walked down the alley, he passed "a young girl sweeping the porch of a ramshackle house. She was poorly dressed and in her young face were already the traces of worry and neglect. Black asked the girl, whose name was Bessie, if she went to Sunday school. "No, sir," the girl replied. "I'd like to but I don't have anything fit to wear; but sir, How I'd love to go!" Black and his wife and friends promptly brought the girl some "church clothes," and she began faithfully attending both Sunday school and the young people's meetings. Each time there was a roll call; she was there. One day when Black called the roll, Bessie failed to answer. Black looked up from the attendance book surprised. He called her name again, but she was not there. After the service he hurried to the alley, worried that Bessie's drunken father had forbidden her to come or that he had beaten her so severely she was unable to make her way to church. Instead, he found her dying of pneumonia. He summoned his own doctor to treat her, but all efforts failed to restore her health. Black couldn't shake off the feeling he'd first experienced when he called the roll and Bessie didn't answer. He thought about how there would be "a roll call in heaven and oh, the sadness there would be for those whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. A song leader, Black longed for a song that would "impress this truth upon the hearts of the young people in his Sunday school class." But he couldn't find one. Later that day he was inspired to write one himself. He sat down at the piano and without any effort at all the words seemed to tumble from his mind. The tune came in the same manner. He felt that he was only the transcriber - he dared not change a note or a word. The song was first sung at Bessie's funeral where Black explained the circumstances leading up to it. He never would forget the effect it had upon the large audience of friends who had come. The Lord had taken little Bessie home, but in her place He had given a song to keep reminding all of us to be ready for the great roll-call day. 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. 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, Author Unknown .·:*´¨`*:·..·:*´¨`*:·. *: * Richiele * * *·. .·* `*·-:¦:-*´ ³´`*:»§«:*´`³