1 There are many paths through this world of sin,
But there’s only one I shall travel in;
’Tis the old Cross Road, or the way called “Straight”—
There is just one way to the pearly gate.
Refrain:
There is just one way to the pearly gate,
To the crown of life and the friends who wait;
’Tis the old Cross Road, or the way called “Straight”—
There is just one way to the pearly gate.
2 There are some who sneer at the old Cross Road,
At the pearly gate and the soul’s abode;
Yet I mind them not, but, with happy song
And assurance sweet, still I press along. [Refrain]
3 Others risk their souls on some new-made way,
Thinking they will come to the gate some day;
Oh, may they find out, ere their lives are done,
That the old Cross Road is the only one.
Timeless Truths
Pseudonym: James S. Apple.
James Rowe was born in England in 1865. He served four years in the Government Survey Office, Dublin Ireland as a young man. He came to America in 1890 where he worked for ten years for the New York Central & Hudson R.R. Co., then served for twelve years as superintendent of the Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society. He began writing songs and hymns about 1896 and was a prolific writer of gospel verse with more than 9,000 published hymns, poems, recitations, and other works.
Dianne Shapiro, from "The Singers and Their Songs: sketches of living gospel hymn writers" by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916) Go to person page >
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