’Twas East­er Sun­day morn­ing,
To the vil­lage I had gone;
My boy­hood home where lived the ones I loved;
At the church the preach­er spoke the Word,
The choir sang sweet­ly, too,
And in their midst an old man sang
The old songs good and true;
His voice was sweet and ten­der,
I seem to hear him yet
Sing again an old refrain I ne­ver will forget.

Refrain

How he sang in the old church choir
Olden songs, gold­en songs of a by­gone day,
Sweet songs of glad­ness, songs, too, of sad­ness
That car­ried me far, far away,
And I longed in my soul for that hea­ven­ly goal
That he sang of so sweet­ly in those songs:
Lead Kindly Light amid th’en­circ­ling gloom
And Rock of Ag­es cleft for me.
Those were the songs, the old gold­en songs
That he sang in the old church choir.

So here’s a sim­ple les­son
Of the good that we can do
To help our fel­low men along the way;
Just a word of cheer to those we meet
May ease an ach­ing heart,
A song may save two souls
That oth­er­wise might drift apart.
Still in my me­mo­ry that lin­gers
That sing­er and his song.
Sweet and low, so long ago,
To hear his voice I long.

Refrain