What Are They Doing in Heaven? (Charles Albert Tindley)

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(Posted 2022-08-02) CPDL #70248:

Editor: Barry Johnston (submitted 2022-08-02). Score information: A5, 1 page, 45 kB Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes: Transcribed from Soul Echoes, 1909. All four stanzas included.

General Information

Title: What Are They Doing in Heaven?
First Line: I am thinking of friends
Composer: Charles Albert Tindley
Lyricist: Charles Albert Tindley
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Sacred, Hymn

Language: English
Instruments: Keyboard

First published: 1901
2nd published: 1909 in Soul Echoes, Edition 2, no. 15
3rd published: 1916 in New Songs of Paradise, Edition 1, no. 19
Description: A gospel hymn.

External websites:

Original text and translations

English text

1. I am thinking of friends whom I used to know,
Who lived and suffered in this world below;
They've gone up to heaven, but I want to know,
What they are doing now.

Chorus
What are they doing in heaven today?
Where sin and sorrow are all done away,
And peace abounds like a river they say;
O what are they doing there now?

2. There were some whose hearts were burdened with cares,
They passed their moments in sighing and tears,
They clung to the cross with trembling and fears,
But what are they doing now?

3. There were some whose bodies were full of disease,
Medicine nor doctor could give them much ease;
They suffered till death brought a final release,
But what are they doing now?

4. There were some who were poor and often despised;
They looked to heaven through tear-blinded eyes,
While people were heedless and deaf to their cries,
But what are they doing now?