Bible Songs — Special Selections

Scatter Seeds of Kindness

Let us gather up the sunbeams,

No. 1395
Tune SCATTER SEEDS OF KINDNESS.
Words Mrs. Albert Smith.
Music S. J. Vail
Key G major
Singing key F major
Time 2/4
4 stanzas

Words

Let us gather up the sunbeams,Lying all around our path;Let us keep the wheat and roses,Casting out the thorns and chaff;Let us find our sweetest comfortIn the blessings of to-day,With a patient hand removingAll the briers from the way.

Chorus.

Then scatter seeds of kindness,Then scatter seeds of kindness,Then scatter seeds of kindness,For our reaping by and by.

Strange we never prize the musicTill the sweet-voiced bird is flown!Strange that we should slight the violetsTill the lovely flowers are gone!Strange that summer skies and sunshineNever seem one half so fairAs when winter's snowy pinionsShake the white down in the air.

If we knew the baby fingers,Pressed against the window pane.Would be cold and stiff to-morrow—Never trouble us again—Would the bright eyes of our darlingCatch the frown upon our brow?Would the prints of rosy fingersVex us then as they do now?

Ah! those little ice-cold fingers,How they point our mem'ries backTo the hasty words and actionsStrewn along our backward track!How those little hands remind us,As in snowy grace they lie,Not to scatter thorns—but roses—For our reaping by and by!

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «1395» (large) at the left, title «SCATTER SEEDS OF KINDNESS.» centred (condensed capitals with larger initials); under it the epigraph «"Be kindly affectioned one to another."—Rom. 12 : 10.» (smaller roman, old-style figures; the thin spaces around the colon closed up); «MRS. ALBERT SMITH.» (the words) at the left and «S. J. VAIL, by per. PHILIP PHILLIPS.» (the music, by permission of Philip Phillips; capitals and small capitals, «by per.» in lower case) at the right above system 1; folio «603» at the foot. No meter, no tune name other than the title, no reference line, no «Copyrighted» line. The four stanzas are interlinear between the staves of systems 1–3 and the first two bars of system 4, numbered «1.»–«4.» in system 1; «CHORUS.» (bold capitals) stands over system 4, and the chorus words are printed once (in system 4 on the second lyric line, after stanza 2's «air.»; in system 5 alone) and are sung after every stanza. «ad lib.» (italic) stands over the last phrase («reaping by and by.»). Each printed line of words carries two or more verse lines; the verse lines are given here one per line, by the trochaic 8.7 pattern and the capitals that open them. In stanza 2 the three «Strange» and in stanza 3 the word «brow?» are printed in a different, condensed bold type (not italic): written plain, noted in `uncertainties.md`. The print sets a thin space before «!», «?», «;» and «:»; it is closed up here; quotation marks and apostrophes are written straight. Words divided under the notes are joined («gath - er», «sun - beams», «Ly - ing», «a - round», «nev - er», «mu - sic», «sweet-voiced», «ba - by», «fin - gers», «a - gainst», «win - dow», «lit - tle», «ice-cold», «mem'ries», «ros - es», «Cast - ing», «sweet - est», «love - ly», «sum - mer», «to-morrow», «Nev - er», «troub - le», «a - gain», «has - ty», «ac - tions», «a - long», «back - ward», «re - mind», «com - fort», «bless - ings», «to-day», «pa - tient», «re - mov - ing», «sun - shine», «win - ter's», «snow - y», «pin - ions», «dar - ling», «up - on», «ros - y», «scat - ter», «bri - ers», «reap - ing», «kind - ness»). Spelling and punctuation are the print's («to-day», «to-morrow», «mem'ries», «briers», «Strewu», «pane.»).