Scripture Verse

Why do make you this ado, and weep? The girl is not dead, but is sleeping. Mark 5:39

Introduction

portrait
Lizzie DeArmond
1847–1936

Words: Liz­zie De­Ar­mond, in Ro­de­hea­ver’s Gos­pel Songs, ed­it­ed by Ho­mer Ro­de­hea­ver (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois & Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Ro­de­hea­ver, 1922), num­ber 128.

Music: Ho­mer A. Ro­de­hea­ver (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a bet­ter pho­to of De­Ar­mond,

portrait
Homer A. Rodeheaver
1880–1955

Origin of the Song

These words grew out of De­Ar­mond’s grief up­on los­ing her daugh­ter:

When God called my girl to live with Him, I felt I could not spare her, and it left an ache in my heart that was dif­fi­cult to bear.

The ev­er pre­sent, per­sis­tent ques­tion, Why should my girl be ta­ken? be­came the ov­er­whelm­ing bur­den of my wak­ing mo­ments. Why should it be my child?

After sev­er­al months of wrest­ling with this ques­tion, my health was af­fect­ed and my faith cloud­ed. Then one night, while I was pac­ing up and down on my lawn, there came me the words as if spok­en from the sky:

We Chris­tians do not sor­row with­out hope. We do have to say good­bye to our loved ones here, but we have that glo­ri­ous hope of good morn­ing ov­er there.

The mes­sage brought sur­cease from my sor­row, com­fort for my heart, and stim­u­lus to my faith. I hast­ened to my room where the po­em took form.

God gave me a song that has been a bless­ing in my life, as it will be to oth­ers who sor­row for loved ones.

Lyrics

When comes to the wea­ry
A bless­èd re­lease,
When up­ward we pass
To His king­dom of peace,
When free from the woes
That on earth we must bear,
We’ll say good night here,
But good morn­ing up there.

Refrain

Good morn­ing up there
Where Christ is the light,
Good morn­ing up there
Where com­eth no night;
When we step from this earth
To God’s Hea­ven so fair,
We’ll say good night here
But good morn­ing up there.

When fad­eth the day and
Dark sha­dows draw nigh,
With Christ close at hand,
It is not death to die;
He’ll wipe ev­ery tear,
Roll away ev­ery care;
We’ll say good night here,
But good morn­ing up there.

Refrain

When home lights we see
Shining bright­ly above,
Where we shall be soon,
Through His won­der­ful love,
We’ll praise Him who called us
His Hea­ven to share,
We’ll say good night here
But good morn­ing up there.

Refrain