He'll Be Coming 'Round The Mountain

It all started tonight with my husband asking me what was the meaning of the six white horses in the song Gillian Welch was singing on the Prairie Home Companion show.   I went to my usual source for knowledge, and I wish I could write it was the Bible, but it was Google.   Sigh.  One search led to another and I learned that the old children's song, "She'll Be Comin 'Round the Mountain," was originally an old African Spiritual that referred to the Second Coming of Christ!   Here  I thought it was just a nonsense song that was fun to sing on car trips.   It was a bit like realizing "Found a Peanut" is really a allegory about life and death and our eternal destiny!   Here are the original lyrics to "Comin 'Round the Mountain," according to Wikipedia:

O, who will drive the chariot When she comes? O, who will drive the chariot When she comes? O, who will drive the chariot, O, who will drive the chariot, O, who will drive the chariot, When she comes?

King Jesus, he'll be driver when she comes, When she comes . . . .

She'll be loaded with bright Angels When she comes . . . .

She will neither rock nor totter, When she comes . . . .

She will run so level and steady, When she comes . . . .

She will take us to the portals, When she comes . . . 

Soon we will be celebrating the birth of a babe in the manger.   Jesus, born so lowly, will return as our King of Kings and Lord of all.   This feminine chariot of the song will run rock steady with Jesus holding the reins.  

I never did understand how some little country gal could ride six white horses anyway. . .