Song
What Shall I Do
Some questions never go out of date. “What must I do to be saved?” was first cried out around midnight in a Philippian jail, when an earthquake shook the prison where Paul and Silas sat singing with their feet in the stocks (Acts 16:25–31). The jailer, trembling, asked the oldest question a soul can ask — and received the only answer that has ever held: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31, NIV). Nearly eighteen centuries later, that midnight cry became a hymn. The words of “O What Shall I Do to Be Saved?” are credited to Jonas Welch Holman (1809–1888), a Maine-born itinerant portrait painter turned preacher — a man who founded the first Free Will Baptist church in Boston, studied medicine at Harvard to better care for the people he pastored, published a revival journal, and preached more than five thousand sermons across New England over half a century of ministry. The hymn circulated in the Boston revival songbook Revival Melodies in the 1840s, pressing the jailer’s question through every season of life: sorrow, bereavement, sickness, and the sudden view of eternity. Then the tune-maker came. William Batchelder Bradbury (1816–1868) — the composer who gave the world the melodies of “Jesus Loves Me,” “Just As I Am,” and “Sweet Hour of Prayer” — set the text to music and published it in his 1862 Sunday-school collection The Golden Shower, crediting the words to Revival Melodies “by permission.” Bradbury believed the gospel could be sung into hearts that a sermon might never reach, and this song proved him right: congregations have been asking and answering its question ever since. The Dirt Road Gospel Music recording of “What Shall I Do” carries that heritage onto the dirt road — a country-gospel telling that opens with the story of the song, reads the Scripture that birthed it, sings Holman’s verses over acoustic guitar and pedal steel, and lands where the hymn has always landed: “That will I do, that will I do — to Jesus I’ll go and be saved.” The question is old. The answer is older. And every generation — including ours — has to answer it for themselves.
"And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."
A song for the road you're on.
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What Shall I Do Dirt Road Gospel Music DirtRoadGospelMusic.com [Spoken Intro] Eighteen fifty-two. A traveling portrait painter turned preacher named Jonas Holman picked up his pen and wrote down the oldest question a soul can ask. He'd preached five thousand sermons across New England, but he built this song on a midnight cry from a Philippian jail. William Bradbury — the man who gave the world "Jesus Loves Me" — set it to music, and folks have been singing it ever since. Because every generation has to answer this question for themselves. Hear the Word of the Lord. [Scripture Reading] From the book of Acts, chapter sixteen: At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And the keeper of the prison came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." [Verse 1] O what shall I do to be saved From the sorrows that burden my soul Like the waves in the storm When the winds are at war Chilling floods of distress o'er me roll [Chorus] What shall I do? What shall I do? O what shall I do to be saved? What shall I do? What shall I do? O what shall I do to be saved? [Verse 2] O what shall I do to be saved When the pleasures of youth are all fled And the friends I have loved From the earth are removed And I weep o'er the graves of the dead [Chorus] What shall I do? What shall I do? O what shall I do to be saved? What shall I do? What shall I do? O what shall I do to be saved? [Verse 3] O what shall I do to be saved When sickness my strength shall subdue Or the world in a day Like a cloud rolls away And eternity opens to view [Chorus] What shall I do? What shall I do? O what shall I do to be saved? What shall I do? What shall I do? O what shall I do to be saved? [Bridge] O Lord, look in mercy on me Come, O come and speak peace to my soul Unto whom shall I flee Dearest Lord but to Thee Thou canst make my poor broken heart whole [Outro] That will I do, that will I do To Jesus I'll go and be saved That will I do, that will I do To Jesus I'll go and be saved