There is a better world they say,
    O so bright!
    O so bright!
Where sin and woe are done away,
    O so bright!
    O so bright!
And music fills the balmy air,
And angels with bright wings are there,
and harps of gold and mansions fair,
    O so bright!
    O so bright!

No clouds e'er pass along that sky,
    Happy land!
    Happy land!
No tear-drops glisten in the eye,
    Happy land!
    Happy land!
They drink the gushing streams of grace,
And gaze upon the Savour's face
Whose brightness fills the holy place:
Happy land!
Happy land!

And wicked things and beasts of prey
    Come not there!
    Come not there!
And ruthless death and fierce decay
    Come not there!
    Come not there!
There all are holy all are good;
But hearts unwashed in Jesus' blood,
And guilty sinners unnerved.
    Come not there!
    Come not there!

And though we're sinners every one,
    Jesus died!
    Jesus died!
And though our crown of peace is gone.
    Jesus died!
    Jesus died!
We may be cleansed from every stain
We may be crowned with bliss again.
And in that land of glory reign:
    Jesus died!
    Jesus died!

 As I've told you before, I tend to make lists. As a bandsman in the Seattle Temple Corps band, I used to make lists of all of the bandsmen and former bandsmen in the area I knew. I would look for these people and wonder why they weren't in the band. I would talk to them and find out what the problem was. Whenever the band played, I would look in the audience for the people on my list. Frequently, I would see a better band sitting in the congregation than was sitting on the platform. One Sunday morning, I counted 15 bandsmen on the platform and 35 in the audience. This grated on me all of my life.

When I first got to the Houston Temple Corps, I was sitting in the band playing a hymn tune and I heard the sweetest cornet playing you could imagine. I thought, "Wow, we've got a great cornet player in this band." I started watching the small cornet section to see who was making such wonderful music. It wasn't anybody in the band. I started watching and looking around, and there, in the second row of the audience, was an older man with a cornet. Whenever the band would accompany the congregation, he would play his cornet. This annoyed the bandmaster. It turns out that the bandmaster in Houston Temple was just like the bandmaster in Seattle Temple. He never spoke to him and never invited him to play in the band.

One Sunday, not too long after we started attending the Houston Temple Corps, a man came in and sat in the back row. I looked at him from the platform a couple of times and he looked a little familiar. I tried to remember where I had seen him before and then it hit me. He was the guy that walked into the Divisional Youth Band rehearsal at Youth Councils four years before and was placed ahead of me, much to my annoyance, in the Euphonium section. We had the best Euphonium player in the State of Texas sitting in the back row of our corps building. I was thrilled. Our little band was going to sound great. I watched and watched and never saw anybody speak to him. This was his home corps and he had grown up there. I couldn't believe that he wasn't playing in our band, but he was never invited.

After about six weeks of this, I finally went to the Corps Officer and the bandmaster and literally dragged them to the back row of the corps to talk to John, the Euphonium player. They actually spoke to John, shook his hand and had a conversation. It was obvious their hearts weren't in it and nothing ever came of it. Things deteriorated at the Houston Temple Corps and, after several years and two sets of officers, the congregation was slimmer and slimmer. Finally, avoiding the gory details, the Corps Sergeant Major walked out. Bonna and I watched to see what would happen. The congregation was down below thirty on Sunday mornings. I was working full time and going to grad school full time and Bonna was working full time. There was nothing we could do to help the situation. We didn't have a minute to spare. We were in the songster, the band and Bonna was teaching a Sunday School Class. After the Corps Sergeant Major quit and nothing was done to alleviate his problem, we left for our own spiritual well being. The corps officer's wife had been in training with Bonna and they were close friends. She called Bonna and they both were crying on the phone, but we couldn't help in any way because we had no time. Leaving the Salvation Army was the hardest thing we have ever done in our lives. We began attending the Spring Branch Church of the Nazarene.