Bible Songs — Judgment and Second Advent

Waiting

Only waiting till the shadows

No. 1327
Tune WAITING.
Words Mrs. Frances L. Mace.
Music Edwin Barnes.
Key E-flat major
Singing key E♭ major
Time 6/8
4 stanzas

Words

Only waiting till the shadowsAre a little longer grown,Only waiting till the glimmerOf the day's last beam is flown,Till the night of death has fadedFrom the heart once full of day,Till the stars of heaven are breakingThro' the twilight soft and gray.

Only waiting till the reapersHave the last sheaf gathered home;For the summer-time has faded,And the autumn winds have come.Quickly, reapers! gather quickly,All the ripe hours of my heart;For the bloom of life is withered,And I hasten to depart.

Only waiting till the angelsOpen wide the pearly gate,At whose portals long I've lingered,Weary, poor, and desolate:Even now I hear their footsteps,And their voices far away;If they call me, I am waiting,Only waiting to obey.

Waiting for a brighter dwellingThan I ever yet have seen,Where the tree of life is blooming,And the fields are ever green;Waiting for my full redemption,When my Saviour shall restoreAll that sin has caused to witherOn this dreary, mortal shore.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1327» (large, left), title «WAITING.» centred (condensed capitals with a larger initial); under it the epigraph in one centred line, «"Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."—1 Cor. 1 : 7.» (old-style figures); then «MRS. FRANCES L. MACE.» at the left (words) and «EDWIN BARNES.» at the right (music), capitals and small capitals; no meter, no tune name other than the title, no reference line, no chorus and no running head. The four stanzas are interlinear, four lines between the staves of every system, numbered «1.»–«4.» in system 1; each stanza is eight verse lines (8.7.8.7.8.7.8.7), two per system, given here as the verse lines of the poem. Under the music, centred: «Copyrighted 1886 by Edwin Barnes.» and the page number «538». Syllable hyphens are joined («On-ly», «wait-ing», «shad-ows», «lit-tle», «long-er», «glim-mer», «fad-ed», «break-ing», «twi-light», «reap-ers», «gath-ered», «au-tumn», «quick-ly», «with-ered», «hast-en», «de-part», «an-gels», «O-pen», «pearl-y», «por-tals», «lin-gered», «Wea-ry», «des-o-late», «E-ven», «foot-steps», «voi-ces», «a-way», «o-bey», «bright-er», «dwell-ing», «ev-er», «bloom-ing», «re-demp-tion», «Sav-iour», «re-store», «drear-y», «mor-tal»); «sum - mer - time» is given as «summer-time» (see `uncertainties.md`). Two words are printed unbroken under two notes: «Waiting» (stanza 4, system 1) and «Quickly,» (stanza 2, system 3). The print sets a thin space before «;», «:» and «!» («home ;», «late :», «green ;», «heart ;», «way ;», «reap - ers !»); it is closed up here; quotation marks and apostrophes are written straight. Words set closed up by the compositor are spaced («Wherethetree», «theirfoot-steps,»). Spelling and punctuation are the print's («Thro'», «Saviour», «I've», «day's»; no comma after «faded» in stanza 1 and none after «restore» in stanza 4).