Bible Songs — Missionary Songs

Work and Wait

O Christian, idle all the day!

No. 1253
Tune WORK AND WAIT.
Words F. E. Belden.
Music J. H. Tenney.
Key A major
Singing key G major
Time 4/4
4 stanzas

Words

O Christian, idle all the day!'Tis not enough to wait and pray;The time is short, the labor great,O work for Jesus while you wait.

Chorus.

Work and wait, work and wait,Eternity of rest is near.The time is short, the labor great,O work and wait till Christ appear,O, work and wait till Christ appear.

O, stand not idly waiting byWhen sounds abroad the harvest cry!Go forth into the ripened fieldAnd there for God the sickle wield.

O, work in earnest for the LordAnd trust him for the great reward;'Tis he who labors wins the prize,No idler ever gains the skies.

Then to thy task! no more delay!Lest others bear thy sheaves away;Lest some one wear eternallyThe crown of life that was for thee.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1253» (large, left), title «WORK AND WAIT.» centred (capitals and small capitals); on the next line the epigraph «"Work * * while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work."—John 9 : 4.» (the two asterisks stand in the print for the omitted words of the verse; old-style figures, thin spaces around the colon); under it «F. E. BELDEN.» at the left (words) and «J. H. TENNEY.» at the right (music), capitals and small capitals; no meter, no reference line and no running head. The four stanzas are interlinear, four lines between the staves of systems 1 and 2, numbered «1.»–«4.» in system 1; each stanza is four verse lines, given here as the verse lines of the poem (the staff break falls after the second verse line of every stanza). «CHORUS.» is printed over the treble staff at the start of system 3; its words stand once, in one line under the soprano, with a lower line of echoes sung by the other voices while the soprano holds «wait,»: «Work and wait, work and wait,» (alto, tenor and bass), «work and wait,» (tenor and bass), «Work and wait . . . . 'till Christ ap - pear.» (tenor, the bass with him; «'till» with an apostrophe in this line only), and «Work and wait» printed under the bass staff of system 5 (the bass alone). The chorus is given here once, after stanza 1, as printed; the echoes are not repeated in its text. Syllable hyphens are joined («i-dle», «e-nough», «la-bor», «Je-sus», «i-dly», «har-vest», «in-to», «rip-ened», «sick-le», «ear-nest», «re-ward», «la-bors», «i-dler», «ev-er», «de-lay», «oth-ers», «a-way», «e-ter-nal-ly», «E-ter-ni-ty», «ap-pear»); «Christian,», «waiting» and «abroad» are printed whole under two notes. Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's («O Christian» and «O work» without a comma, «O,» with one in stanzas 2–3 and in the last line of the chorus; «task! no» with a small «no»). Under the music: «By permission O. Ditson & Co.» (centred, bold) and the folio «471».