Good Will ‎#85

85. What Will the Recompense Be?

1 Harvester, harvester, gather the sheaves!
The Master is coming this way;
My heart o’er its folly and idleness grieves,
And the hours it has squander’d away.

Chorus:
Gather, gather, gather the sheaves,
Bound in the harvest for thee;
O soul, if thy hand hath pluck’d nothing but leaves,
What will the recompense be?

2 Harvester, harvester, faithful to God,
O seek by the wayside and find,
Grown in the weeds where the rank brambles nod,
The wheat for the sheaves you would bind. [Chorus]

3 Harvester, harvester, work with a will,
Soon will the harvest be done;
While standing in idleness soul, art thou still?
What have thy folded hands won? [Chorus]

4 Harvester, harvester, dally no more,
And think what the Master would say,
“Go gather the sheaves till the harvest is o’er,
Go work with the reapers today!” [Chorus]

Text Information

• First Line: Harvester, harvester, gather the sheaves
• Title: What Will the Recompense Be?
• Author: Eben E. Rexford
• Refrain First Line: Gather, gather, gather the sheaves
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1882

Tune Information

• Name: [Harvester, harvester, gather the sheaves]
• Composer: S. W. Straub