ARI Smart Content - Data Table

Click to show on right, Sources for Song below
Bargery Number 396
Music (Given or Suggested) No tune given
Printer or Publisher Unknown
Latest Date 1840
Evidence for Latest Date The British Library suggest a date of 1840 for the text Shelfmark(s): General Reference Collection HS.74/1250(137).UIN: BLL01003030637. The footnote beginning 'To the Humane and Sympathetic Public' supports a date of 1840 or perhaps a little earlier.
Source of Text Bodleian Library Johnson Ballads 2882
Where Printed Unkown
Roud 7940
Comments on Song Bar091~'The Downward Line' is printed on the same broadside. This text was chosen because of the footnote 'To the Humane and Sympathetic Public'
Source Title The Spiritual Railway
Other Imprints A was text printed by Harkness of Preston on a broadsie together with 'The Teetotal Mill' by Lindsay of Glasgow and by Woodcok of Helston under the title 'The Updward Line'

The Spiritual Railway

The line to Heaven by Christ was made,
With heavenly truth the rails are laid,
From Earth to Heaven the line extends,
And in eternal it ends.

Repentance is the station then,
Where passengers are taken in;
No fee is there for them to pay,
For Jesus is himself the way.

God's word is the first engineer,
It points the way to Heaven so clear,
Through tunnels dark and dreary here.
It does the way to glory cheer.

God's love the fire, his grace the steam,
Which drives the engine and the train;
All you who would to glory ride,
Must come to Christ, in him abide.

In first, and second, and third class,
Repentance, Faith, and Holiness,
You must the way to glory gain,
Or you with Christ can never reign.

Come then, poor sinner, now's the time,
At any station on the line,
If you repent, and turn from sin,
The train will stop and take you in.

If all these trains should by you pass
And you are found in neither class
When neither truth or fire or steam
Can make you willing to get in

The sinners you will weep at last
When heaven is lost and time is past
The heavenly trains are all gone by
Then sinners must forever die

When all these trains in heaven arrive
With all who did in Christ abide
How sweet their voices how they sing
And praise their great eternal king

The King Eternal on his throne
Announces that the trains are come
Their robes are ready to put on
And Jesus says the word "Well done!"

To the Humane and Sympathetic Public

This is to certify that in consequence of the improvements in machinery hand labour has become merely a thing that was - Ten men and two boys with aid of machinery take the labour of 100 men in consequence of which thousands of honest & industrious men have been thrown out of employment
Ladies and Gentlemen, these verses are composed by unemployed tradesmen who have no other means of supporting their wives and families than by disposing of these verses - hoping you may become purchasers - may God bless you and make you happy. Price one Half Penny each or what you may please to give.

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Railroad To Hell

bar323: Dates ----~1860|

Drink is the railroad to hell. See also 'Railway to Hell'

Railway to Hell

bar344: Dates ----~1860|

Drink is the railway to hell. See also 'Railroad to Hell'

Thomas Scaife, epitaph of

bar501: Dates 1840~1842|

Epitaph of a locomotive driver killed in a boiler explosion

Give Me A Ticket To Heaven

bar134: Dates ----~1902|

Orphan asks a porter for ticket to heaven so that she can be reunited with her parents

Railway To Heaven, The

bar343: Dates 1846~1846|

An extended metaphor likening the way to heaven to a railway journey and the various denominations of Christianity as carriages in the same train.

Song of the Railroads

bar394: Dates ----~1850|

Railroads play an almost God-like role in human affairs

Variant Set 015 ~ Railroad to Hell

vs015: Dates ----~----|

Historical Context:

Unless otherwise stated the following is drawn from Drink and the Victorians by Brian Harrison.

The Beerhouse Act of 1830 was an attempt to reduce...

The Spiritual Railway

bar396: Dates ----~1840|

The railway a metaphor for the path to heaven.

The Downward Line

bar091: Dates ----~----|

Drink and Gambling put the sinner on the metaphorical railway to hell.

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