Medley: Old Time Religion / Pass Me Not / Sweet By And By

Merle Haggard threads together three separate nineteenth-century hymns here, and each one answers a different question about faith — 'Old Time Religion' asks what kind of faith is worth keeping ('makes me love everybody, it's good enough for me'), 'Pass Me Not' asks for personal attention inside a crowd, and 'Sweet By and By' looks past the present entirely toward a promised reunion.

'Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry' echoes Mark 10:47's account of blind Bartimaeus crying out to Jesus by name from the roadside crowd — a specific plea not to be overlooked among everyone else being ministered to. 'Old time religion... it's good enough for me' reaches for Hebrews 13:8's claim that 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,' treating the faith's age as a feature rather than something needing modernizing. 'In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore' closes the medley on pure anticipation, content to leave the details of that meeting unexplained.