The Three Calls

Top Text Author Text Info Tune Timeline Page Scans Instances

O slumberer, rouse thee! despise not the truth

Author: I. B. Woodbury
Tune: [O slumberer, rouse thee! despise not the truth]
Published in 9 hymnals

Representative Text

O slumberer, rouse thee! despise not the truth;
But give thy Creator the days of thy youth;
Why standest here idle?—the day breaketh,—see!
The Lord of the vineyard is waiting for thee!
“Holy Spirit, by Thy power,
Grant me yet another hour;
Earthly pleasures I would prove,
Earthly joys, and earthly love;
Scarcely yet hath dawned the day;
Holy Spirit, wait, I pray!”

Ref:
Hark! borne on the wind is the bell’s solemn toil;
‘Tis mournfully pealing the knell of the soul;
The Spirit’s sweet pleadings and strivings are o’er;
The Lord of the vineyard stands waiting no more!

O loiterer, speed thee! the morn wears apace;
Then squander no longer the moments of grace;
But hast while there’s time! with the Master agree;
The Lord of the vineyard stands waiting for thee!
“Gentle Spirit, stay, oh stay!
Brightly beams the earthly day;
Let me linger in these bowers;
God shall have my noonday hours;
Chide me not for my delay;
Gentle Spirit, wait, I pray!”

O sinner, arouse thee! thy morning is past;
Already the shadows are lengthening fast;
Escape for thy life! from the dark mountains flee;
The Lord of the vineyard still waiteth for thee!
“Spirit, case thy mournful lay,
Leave me to myself I pray;
Earth hath flung her spell around me,
Pleasure’s silken chain hath bound me;
When the sun his path has trod,
Spirit, then I’ll turn to God!”

Source: The Gospel Choir #80

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: I. B. Woodbury

Woodbury, Isaac Baker. (Beverly, Massachusetts, October 23, 1819--October 26, 1858, Columbia, South Carolina). Music editor. As a boy, he studied music in nearby Boston, then spent his nineteenth year in further study in London and Paris. He taught for six years in Boston, traveling throughout New England with the Bay State Glee Club. He later lived at Bellow Falls, Vermont, where he organized the New Hampshire and Vermont Musical Association. In 1849 he settled in New York City where he directed the music at the Rutgers Street Church until ill-health caused him to resign in 1851. He became editor of the New York Musical Review and made another trip to Europe in 1852 to collect material for the magazine. in the fall of 1858 his health br… Go to person page >

^ top