The Funeral/Steal Away

Steal away, steal way
Steal away to Jesus
I ain't got long to stay here

You know I was walking in Savannah past a church, decayed and dim
When slowly through the window came a plaintive funeral hymn
And my sympathy awakened and a wonder quickly grew
Until I found myself environed in a little colored pew

Where out front a young couple sat in sorrow nearly wild
On the altar was a casket and in the casket was a child
But I could picture him while living, curly hair protruding lips
For I'd seen perhaps a thousand in my hurried southern trips

There rose a sad, old colored preacher from his little wooden desk
With a manner sort of awkward and countenance grotesque
The simplicity and shrewdness on his dark worried face
Showed the wisdom and the ignorance of a crushed, undying race

And he said, "Now don't be weepin' for this pretty bit of clay
For the little boy who lived there has done gone and run away
He 'ppreciates your kindness, he's been with us for a while
But his sure 'nough father wanted him in that large house, up in the sky

The Lord didn't give you that baby, by no hundred thousand miles
He just think you need some sunshine and so he lent it for a while
And he let you keep and love it 'til your hearts was bigger grown
And these silver tears you're shedding now, is just interest on the loan

Just think my poor dear mourners creeping long on sorrows way
What a blessed picnic this here baby got today
Your good fathers and good mothers crowd the little fella 'round
In the angels' tender garden of the big plantation ground

And his eyes they brightly sparkle at all the pretty things he view
But then a tear came and he whispered, "I want my parents too"
But then the angel's chief musician teach that little boy a song
Says if only they be faithful, they'll soon be comin' 'long

So my poor dejected mourners, let your hearts with Jesus rest
And don't go to criticizin' the one what knows the best
He have give us many comforts, He's got the right to take away
To the Lord be praised in glory, forever and ever, let us pray

Steal away, steal way
Steal away to Jesus
I ain't got long to stay here

Thank you Hank, that's mghty fine
Well, you boys, that was good music there too