There’ll Be No Sorrow There

I woke up this morning feeling fine. I woke up with heaven on my mind. I wrote that Wednesday morning, July 22nd. It was not a rhetorical flourish, but I literally had this hymn on my mind when I awoke, particularly the chorus, “In heaven above where all is love, there’ll be no sorrow there.”

1. Oh, sing to me of heav’n,
When I am called to die,
Sing songs of holy ecstasy,
To waft my soul on high.

2. When cold and sluggish drops
Roll off my marble brow,
Burst forth in strains of joyfulness,
Let heav’n begin below.

3. When the last moments come,
Oh, watch my dying face,
And catch the bright, seraphic gleam,
Which on each feature plays.

4. Then to my ravished ear
Let one sweet song be giv’n,
Let music charm me last on earth,
And greet me first in heav’n.

5. Then close my sightless eyes,
And lay me down to rest,
And clasp my cold and icy hands
Across my peaceful breast.

6. Then ’round my senseless clay
Assemble those I love,
And sing of heav’n, delightful heav’n,
My glorious home above.

Chorus:
There’ll be no sorrow there,
There’ll be no sorrow there;
In heav’n above, where all is love,
There’ll be no sorrow there.

Additional choruses:

O may we meet in heav’n,
The Christians’ happy home;
In heav’n above where all is love,
There’ll be no parting there.

Amen, amen, amen,
Amen, amen, amen;
Praise God, praise God, praise God, praise God,
Praise God, praise God, Amen!

There’ll be much sorrow there,
There’ll be much sorrow there;
In hell below, where all is woe,
There’ll be much sorrow there.

Mrs. Mary Shindler was a significant 19th century American Christian hymnwriter. She published hymn books, including The Southern Harp in 1840 and The Northern Harp in 1841. One of her hymns still found in popular 20th century hymnals (such as The Broadman Hymnal and The National Baptist Hymnal) has 4 lines inscribed on her tombstone:

     Flee as a bird to your mountain,
     Thou who art sick of sin;
     Go to the clear flowing fountain,
     Where you may wash and be clean

Mary Stanley Bunce Palmer was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, February 15, 1810. She was the daughter of Mary Bunce and Benjamin Morgan Palmer, a Congregational Church pastor at Beaufort. In 1835 Mary married Charles W. Dana of New York, and they moved to Iowa in 1839. After her husband and two year-old son died of cholera that summer, she returned to Beaufort.

In May 1848 Mary married Robert Doyne Shindler, an Episcopal clergyman. Sometime after the Civil War, Robert and Mary moved to Texas. He served as a school teacher in San Augustine and rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Nacogdoches. He died in 1874.

Mary Shindler lived with her son and daughter-in-law R. C. and Anna Mary Shindler until her death on February 8, 1883, in Nacogdoches, Texas. She is buried in the historic Oak Grove Cemetery near downtown Nacogdoches.

Writings include:

• The Southern Harp (Boston, 1840)
• The Northern Harp (New York, 1841)
• The Parted Family, and other Poems (1842)
• The Temperance Lyre (1842)
• Charles Morton, or the Young Patriot (1843)
• The Young Sailor (1844)
• Forecastle Tour (1844)
• Letters to Relatives and Friends on the Trinity (1845)

The above hymn have been set to several tunes. In The Sacred Harp, it is used with the tune Sing To Me Of Heaven (page 312), arranged by John Massengale. In Favorite Songs and Hymns, it is paired with There’ll Be No Sorrow There (No. 219) by C. R. Dunbar.[i] The hymn is also paired with a tune in the oral tradition, composer unknown (See There’ll Be No Sorrow There, sung by Myra Dalton).

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[i] According to Find-A-Grave, Charles Raymond Dunbar was originally buried at Broderick Cemetery (Union County, Ohio) in 1895, then moved to Oakdale Cemetery in 1928.