Bible Songs — Missionary Songs

What Shall the Harvest Be?

Sowing the seed by the daylight fair,

No. 1250
Tune WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE?
Words Emily S. Oakley.
Music F. E. Belden.
Key A-flat major
Singing key A♭ major
Time 6/8
4 stanzas

Words

Sowing the seed by the daylight fair,Sowing the seed by the noonday glare,Sowing the seed by the fading light,Sowing the seed in the solemn night.

Chorus.

Sown in the darkness or sown in the light,Sown in our weakness or sown in our might;Gathered in time or eternity,Sure, ah! sure will the harvest be.

Sowing the seed by the wayside high,Sowing the seed on the rocks to die,Sowing the seed where the thorns will spoil,Sowing the seed in the fertile soil.

Sowing the seed of a lingering pain,Sowing the seed of a maddened brain,Sowing the seed of a tarnished name,Sowing the seed of eternal shame.

Sowing the seed with an aching heart,Sowing the seed while the teardrops start,Sowing in hope till the reapers comeGladly to gather the harvest home.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1250» (large) at the left, title «WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE?» centred (capitals and small capitals, a thin space before the «?»); under it the Scripture epigraph (given below) running over two lines, the second line «everlasting."—Gal. 6 : 8.» centred between the names; «EMILY S. OAKLEY.» (the words; so spelt, capitals and small capitals) at the left and «F. E. BELDEN.» (the music) at the right above system 1; «CHORUS.» in bold capitals above system 3; «rit.» in italics over the last eighth of the bar before each final cadence (stanza and chorus); «Copyrighted 1886 by F. E. Belden.» centred under system 4 of p. 468 (the year is blotted), folio «468» below it. The last six bars of the chorus stand at the head of p. 469 under the heading «WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE?—Concluded.». No meter, no tune name other than the title, no reference line, no running head. The four stanzas are interlinear under the melody staff of systems 1–2, numbered «1.»–«4.» in system 1 only; the CHORUS is printed once, between the two staves of systems 3–5, and is sung after every stanza. Each printed line of words carries two verse lines; they are given here one verse line per line. Words divided under the notes are joined («day - light», «noon-day», «way - side», «lin-gering», «ach - ing», «tear-drops», «fad - ing», «tar-nished», «reap - ers», «sol - emn», «fer - tile», «e - ter - nal», «Glad-ly», «gath - er», «har - vest», «dark - ness», «weak - ness», «Gath - ered», «e- / ter - ni - ty»); «Sow - ing» is so divided in the first three half-lines of every stanza and printed whole («Sowing») in the fourth, «maddened» is printed whole. The thin space the print sets before «;», «:» and «!» is closed up; quotation marks are written straight. The fourth stanza has no stop after «come» (the sentence runs on).