The Old Cross Road

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There are many paths through this world of sin

Author: James Rowe (1920)
Tune: [There are many paths through this world of sin]
Published in 8 hymnals

Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

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

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Author: James Rowe

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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First Line:	There are many paths through this world of sin
Title:	The Old Cross Road
Author:	James Rowe (1920)
Meter:	10.10.10.10 with refrain
Language:	English
Refrain First Line:	There is just one way