Uploaded March 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Sandburg writes: "When the first anxieties and fears about the A-Bomb came, Jonathan Daniels of Raleigh, North Carolina, gave his view that this new weapon could hold little or no terror for the millions of people who believe, and whose minds picture, a coming Day of Judgment. There are people fully prepared for Doomsday and its destroying flame. Many songs have been written which give the feeling of those who foresee a Last Hour on this earth for mankind. Some envision that hour as arriving at a shattering blast from a trumpet or horn blown by the Angel Gabriel.
"We remember how in Marc Connelly's play "Green Pastures" Gabriel kept toying with that end-of-the-world horn. "Remember?" writes Tom Stokes. "Remember how Gabriel just couldn't resist sneaking that horn up toward his mouth and how the Lord would thunder sternly: 'Gabe!'? And how Gabriel would sheepishly drop the doom-sounder back to his side? The Lord must be nervous today. Gabriel's still hanging around but he's swapped his horn for a bright and shiny atom bomb and his finger itches for the trigger." Tom is writing about a natural event. This spiritual deals with the supernatural. It sings the belief that the innumerable dead of past ages are to be awakened and called to judgment. Those fully prepared for such a vast supernatural event can look at an atom bomb blast as a minor affair, comparable to Joshua's feat of dropping a ram's horn blast on Jericho and the walls tumbling as in Hiroshima, August the Sixth, 1945 Anno Domini. Those who have moved from the big cities to country places, for safety, have asked themselves, "Where shall I be?"
Sandburg writes: "When the first anxieties and fears about the A-Bomb came, Jonathan Daniels of Raleigh, North Carolina, gave his view that this new weapon could hold little or no terror for the millions of people who believe, and whose minds picture, a coming Day of Judgment. There are people fully prepared for Doomsday and its destroying flame. Many songs have been written which give the feeling of those who foresee a Last Hour on this earth for mankind. Some envision that hour as arriving at a shattering blast from a trumpet or horn blown by the Angel Gabriel.
"We remember how in Marc Connelly's play "Green Pastures" Gabriel kept toying with that end-of-the-world horn. "Remember?" writes Tom Stokes. "Remember how Gabriel just couldn't resist sneaking that horn up toward his mouth and how the Lord would thunder sternly: 'Gabe!'? And how Gabriel would sheepishly drop the doom-sounder back to his side? The Lord must be nervous today. Gabriel's still hanging around but he's swapped his horn for a bright and shiny atom bomb and his finger itches for the trigger." Tom is writing about a natural event. This spiritual deals with the supernatural. It sings the belief that the innumerable dead of past ages are to be awakened and called to judgment. Those fully prepared for such a vast supernatural event can look at an atom bomb blast as a minor affair, comparable to Joshua's feat of dropping a ram's horn blast on Jericho and the walls tumbling as in Hiroshima, August the Sixth, 1945 Anno Domini. Those who have moved from the big cities to country places, for safety, have asked themselves, "Where shall I be?"
