"Each day I’ll do a golden deed, By helping those who are in need; My life on earth is but a span, And so I’ll do the best I can.
To be a child of God each day, My light must shine along the way; I’ll sing His praise while ages roll, And strive to help some troubled soul.
The only life that will endure, Is one that’s kind and good and pure; And so for God I’ll take my stand, Each day I’ll lend a helping hand.
I’ll help someone in time of need, And journey on with rapid speed; I’ll help the sick and poor and weak, And words of kindness to them speak.
While going down life’s weary road, I’ll try to lift some trav’ler’s load; I’ll try to turn the night to day, Make flowers bloom along the way."
The words of this great song was written in 1918 by William M. Golden. It is one of those I remember hearing sung my entire life. My memories include the Merrits Ave. Baptist Church Quartet when I was just a kid, attending some of the old country churches, but my fondest memory I believe was when I was a teenager. As I recall, the church I attended as a teenager, about once a month, we would have a Sunday night singing. The regular hymnals would be put away and we would sing from an old soft covered, dark brown song book. I do not remember the name, (Wish I did. I'd try to find a copy to have.) It was full of the old time gospel songs like this one.
The teenagers loved these Sunday night singings. We loved the old songs and often would try to make sure we would out sing the adults. Another song that comes to mind, this morning as I'm thinking about these singings was "On The Jericho Road" . I don't know why, but the teenagers found great joy singing these old songs. I remember all of us looking at each other as we sang and the joy was apparent on everyone faces. Those were some good times of enjoying God's love for us as we where singing His praises.
"A Beautiful Life" is one of those songs probably not sang and recorded as much as many others. It became more of a country or blue grass gospel song, often sung and recorded by groups and artists like, The Statler Brothers, The Wilburn Brothers, Willie Nelson, Jim Reeves, The Hee Haw Quartet just to name a few. The Chuck Wagon Gang, probably the oldest and all time most popular gospel country style quartet has sang "A Beautiful Life" throughout their history. I believe I remember reading somewhere, they first recorded it in the mid 30's. (I didn't even know they had MP3 players back then. LOL) I have always enjoyed hearing and singing "A Beautiful Life" . I like the parts, the harmony and yes, it has a bass lead.
I'll share a couple of links this morning. The first is from one of the Gaither videos and it is a more traditional congregation singing of "A Beautiful Life". The second link features some pretty low down bass singing and the version I was awaken to this morning! I hope you will enjoy and have a blessed Friday!
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