Lyrics
Tempted and tried, we're oft made to wonder
Why it should be thus all the day long,
While there are others living about us,
Never molested, though in the wrong.
Farther along we'll know all about it,
Farther along we'll understand why;
Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine,
We'll understand it all by and by.
Often I wonder why I must journey
Over a road so rugged and steep,
While there are others living in comfort
While in the fold of God they safely keep.
When death has come and taken our loved ones,
It leaves our home so lonely and drear;
Then do we wonder why others prosper,
Living so wicked year after year.
Public domain hymn text (traditional American gospel song, early 20th century).
The Story Behind the Hymn
Unlike many gospel songs of its era, 'Farther Along' has no single, well-documented author. It is generally treated as a traditional American gospel song, passed through rural Southern churches and shape-note singing conventions in the early twentieth century before finally appearing in print.
It first reached a wide audience through gospel songbooks and radio broadcasts of the 1930s and 1940s, a period when traveling quartets and small publishing houses across the American South did much of the work of collecting, arranging, and spreading songs of exactly this kind.
What sets the hymn apart is its unusual honesty. Rather than offering a tidy explanation for suffering, it simply admits confusion outright, naming the specific, uncomfortable question so many believers have quietly asked: why do the faithful so often struggle while others, 'never molested, though in the wrong,' seem to prosper without consequence.
The song refuses to resolve that tension with a quick answer. Its comfort is deferred rather than immediate, resting entirely on the promise contained in its title: that clarity will come 'farther along,' not necessarily now.
That deferred hope struck a chord with rural congregations who knew hardship firsthand, and the song became a staple of Southern gospel quartets, bluegrass gospel sets, and small-church hymn sings throughout the twentieth century.
It has been recorded by an unusually broad range of artists spanning gospel, country, and bluegrass traditions, a testament to how directly its plain, weary honesty about unanswered questions continues to resonate outside any single denomination.
Its enduring appeal may be less about resolving doubt than about giving people permission to name it. Rather than requiring a worshiper to feel resolved before singing, it simply asks them to 'cheer up' and keep walking, trusting that understanding, even if delayed, will eventually come.
