From: "Tim Ausburn"
This is the work of Tim Ausburn.
Performer: Hank Williams. Hank sung this on a Mother's Best radio show.
Words and music: Milton Estes, Wally Fowler, Tommy Harrell and Paul Kinsey.


WHEN THE FIRE COMES DOWN FROM HEAVEN
Key G


(G) Way back in the days of Noah,
Water (C) covered all this (G) land,
Then the great rainbow of promise,
Started (A7) up on life a- (D7) gain,
And the (G) Good Book tells of fires,
That will (C) fill the earth some (G) day,
Then the sinful will be screamin',
As this (D7) earth shall pass a- (G) way.


Chorus:
(G) When the fire, (when the fire),
Comes down from Heaven, (comes down from Heaven),
This old (C) world, (this old world),
Will melt a- (G) way, (will melt away),
Millions then, (millions then),
Will cry for mercy, (will cry for mercy),
But it will be, (but it will (D7) be),
Too late to (G) pray.


Oh this World is at a tremble,
And it's rockin' to and fro,
You can read it in the papers,
Hear it on the radio,
In the movies, they are showin',
Towns and cities, how they blaze,
But there's hotter fire a-comin',
If we follow sin's highway.


Repeat chorus:


Texas City, Texas City,
Oh how awful was her fate,
First she burned and then exploded,
Now the story, we'll relate,
Of the *Wine-coff* in Atlanta,
How she burned right to the ground,
Of the great fire in Chicago,
And the dead lay all around.


Repeat chorus:


*  The Wine-coff was a big hotel.