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GOSPEL SDA HYMNAL (1985)

SDAH 288: I Am Going to Calvary

GOSPEL >> INVITATION

SDAH 288

I am going to Calvary,
Would you like to come with Me
All the way and back again?
You must follow the Leader then.

Text
Text

1
I am going to Calvary,
Would you like to come with Me
All the way and back again?
You must follow the Leader then.
You must follow the Leader,
You must follow the Leader,
All the way and back again,
You must follow the Leader.

2
If I want a thorny crown,
If the soldiers knock me down
Can I really be a king?
Love will answer everything
If you follow the Leader,
If you follow the Leader,
Love will answer everything,
If you follow the Leader.

3
When I go along the road,
I shall lift a heavy load.
I will carry a cross for you.
You will learn to carry it too
When you follow the Leader,
When you follow the Leader,
You will learn to carry it too
When you follow the Leader.

4
I am going to stretch My hands,
Reaching out to all the lands.
Can I really be a king?
Love’s the lord of everything,
When you follow the Leader,
When you follow the Leader
Love’s the lord of everything,
When you follow the Leader.

Hymn Info
Hymn Info


Biblical Information
(a) Luke 23:33 (b) Matt 27:29 (c) John 19:17
 
Author
Brian Wren (1936-)
 
Copyright Information
Words copyright 1983 by Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Music arrangement copyright 1983 by Charles Strange.

Hymn Tune
SEE SAW SACCARA DOWN
 
Metrical Number
7.7.7.7.D.
 
Arranger
Charles Strange (1902-)
 
Year Composed
1972

Hymn Score

Piano Accompaniment

Notes

Get to know the hymns a little deeper with the SDA Hymnal Companion. Use our song leader’s notes to engage your congregation in singing with understanding. Even better, involve kids in learning this hymn with our homeschooling materials.

In the year 1971, when Brian Wren’s (1936- ; see Biographies) children were young, it was a household habit to tune to the BBC program Listen With Mother. One day Wren’s wife, Brenda, heard this children’s song sung to a traditional English melody:

                                          I am going to Timbuktu,

                                              Would you like to go there too,

                                          All the way and back again?

                                              You must follow the leader then.

      She suggested to her husband the words of stanza I, which he promptly extended into the complete song. It is a delightful way for children to sing about and absorb the experience of Jesus dying on the cross. Here Jesus is telling the story Himself and inviting them to come along and play “follow the leader.” As Wren says: “There is no reason why a song about the Crucifixion should be in a minor key, and our guess is that children will like and understand it.” It will surely help them to understand Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:24, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

       SEE SAW SACCARA DOWN is the name supplied with the arrangement of this tune, made in 1972 by Charles E. Strange. Strange was born in 1902 at Oxford, and now lives in retirement in the Palmers Green section of London. He describes himself as a “retired civil servant, organist, and choirmaster.” He served from 1954 to 1972 on the Public Worship and Aids to Devotion Committee of the then Presbyterian Church (now United Reformed Church) of England. From 1964 to 1972 he was a member of the Revision Committee for the book The Church Hymnary. For many years he was editor of the Guild Review, of the United Reformed Church Guild of Organist and Choirmaster. His musical contributions appear in the book New Church Praise, a hymnal supplement published in 1975 for the United Reformed Church.

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