When Nathan Led the Choir by Joseph C. Lincoln

I s'pose I hain't progressive, but I swan, it seems ter me / Religion isn't nigh so good as what it used ter be! / I go ter meetin' every week and rent my reg'lar pew, / But hain't a mite uplifted when the sarvices are through; / I take my orthodoxy straight, like Gran'pop did his rum, / (It never hurt him, neither, and a deacon, too, by gum! ) / But now the preachin' 's mushy and the singin' 's lost its fire: / I 'd like ter hear old Parson Day, with Nathan leadin' choir.

I'd like ter know who told these folks that all was perfect peace, / And glidin' inter heaven was as slick as meltin' grease; / Old Parson Day, I tell yer what, his sermons made yer _think_! / He'd shake yer over Tophet till yer heard the cinders clink. / And then, when he'd gin out the tune and Nate would take his stand / Afore the chosen singers, with the tuning-fork in hand, / The meetin'-house jest held its breath, from cellar plum ter spire, / And then bu'st forth in thunder-tones with Nathan leadin' choir.