I’ve chosen for the recessional hymn at my church this Sunday #354 “Come, Labor On,” text by Jane Laurie Borthwick (translator of the hymn text “Be Still, My Soul”), 1859, set to the tune ORA LABORA by T. Tertius Noble (then organist/choirmaster at St. Thomas Church, New York) in 1918.
It was only after the bulletin was printed yesterday did I realize the choice of this hymn fell on Labor Day Weekend, but I think it is rather appropriate. This hymn may not be familiar to many of you in the evangelical tradition, but I have found it to be a great hymn of Mission and Evangelism. It is one of only a handful of hymns in the Christian Life Hymnal with a unison/accompaniment setting (about 10 total – all the rest are scored for congregational 4-part singing – but more on that in a future posting).
Here are the lyrics:
Come, labor on!
Who dares stand idle, on the harvest plain
While all around him waves the golden grain?
And to each servant does the Master say, “Go work today.”
Come, labor on!
The enemy is watching night and day,
To sow the tares, to snatch the seed away;
While we in sleep our duty have forgot, He slumbered not.
Away with gloomy doubts and faithless fear!
No arm so weak but may do service here:
By feeblest agents may our God fulfill
His righteous will.
Come, labor on!
Claim the high calling angels cannot share—
To young and old the Gospel gladness bear;
Redeem the time; its hours too swiftly fly.
The night draws nigh.
No time for rest, till glows the western sky,
Till the long shadows o’er our pathway lie,
And a glad sound comes with the setting sun,
“Well done, well done!”
