What Will You Do?

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What if the watchman should cry aloud

Author: Edwin O. Excell (1893)
Tune: [What if the watchman should cry aloud]
Published in 5 hymnals

Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 What if the watchman should cry aloud;
And proclaim the day of judgment near?
What would you do if you heard him say,
“You must at the judgment bar appear?”
What would you do?
What would you do?
Say, What would you do?
What would you do if you heard him say,
“You must at the judgment bar appear?”

2 What will you do on that dreadful day,
As before the Judge you trembling wait?
What will you do if the door is shut,
And you hear it said “too late, too late?”
What will you do?
What will you do?
Say, What will you do?
What will you do if the door is shut,
And you hear it said, “too late, too late?”

3 What will you do in that sad, sad hour,
When the Judge has said, “depart” to thee?
What will you do as He turns you back,
If your soul is lost eternally?
What will you do?
What will you do?
Say, What will you do?
What will you do as He turns you back,
If your soul is lost eternally?

Source: Triumphant Songs No.4 #119

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Author: Edwin O. Excell

Edwin Othello Excel USA 1851-1921. Born at Uniontown, OH, he started working as a bricklayer and plasterer. He loved music and went to Chicago to study it under George Root. He married Eliza Jane “Jennie” Bell in 1871. They had a son, William, in 1874. A member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he became a prominent publisher, composer, song leader, and singer of music for church, Sunday school, and evangelistic meetings. He founded singing schools at various locations in the country and worked with evangelist, Sam Jones, as his song leader for two decades. He established a music publishing house in Chicago and authored or composed over 2,000 gospel songs. While assisting Gypsy Smith in an evangelistic campaign in Louisville,… Go to person page >

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