Bible Songs — Missionary Songs

The World's Harvest

Servants of Jesus, the day is at hand

No. 1263
Tune THE WORLD'S HARVEST.
Words Mrs. E. C. Ellsworth.
Music J. H. Fillmore.
Key B-flat major
Singing key B♭ major
Time 4/4
4 stanzas

Words

Servants of Jesus, the day is at hand,Fields for our labor invitingly stand;Mark ye the signals, they widely diffuseTokens of the coming harvest, joyful the news.

Chorus.

Pray for help, Christian, pray, pray, pray,Yes, pray for help in the fields white to-day;Gather the sheaves, bring the world's harvest home,Glorious and blessed harvest, come, Saviour, come.

Work is abundant, the promise is great,Few are the reapers, in sadness they wait;Patiently toiling, yet daily they cry,Pray ye that our Lord and Master, reapers supply.

Men who are faithful are fainting to-day,Worn with their labors, they fall by the way;Fill ye the ranks, and with heart and with handGather in the blessed harvest, Christ gives command.

Hasten the time when the reapers shall sing,And with rejoicing, their sheaves homeward bring;Saints with the angels together shall meet:Glorious and blessed meeting round Jesus' feet.

From "Songs of Gratitude," by permission.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: no running head on p. 480 (the page opens with the hymn); hymn number «1263» (large, left), title «THE WORLD'S HARVEST.» centred (condensed capitals and small capitals, with a final period); under it, on one line, the epigraph «"Lift up your eyes and look on the fields ; for they are white already to harvest."—John 4 : 35.» (roman, old-style figures); on the next line «MRS. E. C. ELLSWORTH.» at the left (words) and «J. H. FILLMORE.» at the right (music), both in capitals and small capitals. No meter, no tune name other than the title, no tempo word and no reference line are printed. The four stanzas are interlinear, numbered «1.» «2.» «3.» «4.», between the staves of systems 1–3 (the words «sheaves home - ward bring;» of stanza 4, at the head of system 2, are set in a condensed bold type to fit); «CHORUS.» (bold capitals) stands over the third bar of system 3, and the chorus words are printed once — their first line on the second lyric line of system 3, level with stanza 2, the rest on one line under systems 4–5; the chorus is sung after every stanza. Under the music, centred: «From "Songs of Gratitude," by permission.». Each stanza is given here in its four verse lines and the chorus in four lines (the printed lines of words follow the staves, not the verses, and break inside «in- / vit - ing - ly»). The words divided under the notes are joined here («Serv - ants», «Je - sus», «la - bor», «in- / vit - ing - ly», «sig-nals», «dif-fuse», «com - ing», «har - vest», «joy - ful», «a - bundant», «sad-ness», «Pa - tient - ly», «toil - ing», «dai - ly», «Mas - ter», «reap-ers», «sup - ply», «faith-ful», «la-bors», «bless - ed», «Hast - en», «re - joic-ing», «home - ward», «an - gels», «to - geth - er», «Glo - ri - ous», «meet - ing», «Gath - er», «Sav - iour» → «Servants», «Jesus», …); the divisions are in `lyrics_syllables.txt`. «to - day» (stanza 3 and chorus) is kept «to-day», the spelling of the book. The print sets a thin space before «;» and «:» («stand ;», «wait ;», «way ;», «meet :», «to - day ;»); it is closed up here; curly quotes and apostrophes are written straight. Spelling, punctuation and capitals are the print's, including the lower-case «joyful» after the comma, «hand» without a stop before «Gather» (stanza 3) and «diffuse» without a stop before «Tokens» (stanza 1).