When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more. James Milton Black* (1856-1938). This is sometimes remembered as ‘When the roll is called up yonder’, from the refrain. It was first published in an edition of J.H. Alleman’s Songs of the Saviour’s Love (Chicago, 1899). It was written in response to a sad event, a poor child who joined the Sunday school but who failed one day to answer to the roll call. Black said that ‘I spoke of what a sad thing it would be, when our names are called from the Lamb’s Book of Life, if one of us should be absent; and I said, “God, when my own name is called up yonder, may I be there to respond!”’ (Sankey, 1906, pp. 286-7). What he did for...