1 Must I always toil and labor?
Must my work be e’er in vain?
Can I never aid my neighbor
To a higher life attain?
Must I e’er continue sowing?
Will the reaping never come?
Can’t I aid man’s upward growing?
Have I nothing ever done?
Refrain:
We should sow in life’s brief morning,
Lest the night of death draw nigh;
We should sow while life is fleeting,
Reaping bye and bye.
2 Shall the harvest all be gathered,
And no sheaves belong to me?
Shall I only be not farthered
In the life that is to be?
Now’s the sowing, soon the reaping,
Then my heart will stronger be;
Then no longer I’ll be weeping
O’er my insufficiency. [Refrain]
3 He will guard each truth I’ve spoken,
Some shall fall on fertile ground;
Ev’ry bond that I have broken,
To my credit shall be found;
Then I’ll sow, and, patient waiting,
Bear at last my gathered sheaves;
And, escaped from sin and hating,
Enter where none ever grieves. [Refrain]
Source: Triumphant Songs No.1 #32