Road to Heaven, The

DESCRIPTION: "The road to heaven by Christ was made, With heavenly truth the rails are laid, From earth to heaven the line extends... I'm going home to die no more." The Christian life is compared to a railway: "The Bible is the engineer," "God's love the fire," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1854 (Chamber's Journal, according to Cohen)
KEYWORDS: railroading religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 605-610, "I'm Going Home to Die No More/The Railway Spiritualized" (2 texts plus 2 broadside prints, 1 tune)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 53-54, "The Spiritual Railway" (1 text plus an excerpt, 1 tune)
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, p. 468, "The Railroad to Heaven" (1 text)
Randolph 600, "The Road to Heaven" (1 text)
Roud #7940
RECORDINGS:
Blue Ridge Gospel Singers (Buell Kazee, Lester O'Keefe, and others), "I'm Going Home to Die No More" (Brunswick 152, 1927)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(024), "The Spiritual Railway" ("The line to Heaven by Christ was made"), James Lindsay (Glasgow), c. 1855.
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Spiritual Railroad
NOTES [11 words]: FlandersEtAl report that the tune for this is "My Heavenly Home." - RBW
Last updated in version 3.0
File: R600

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