1 THIS is the field, the world below,
In which the sowers came to sow,
Jesus the wheat, Satan the tares,
For so the word of truth declares:
And soon the reaping time will come,
And angels shout the harvest home.
2 Most awful truth! and is it so?
Must all the world that harvest know?
Is every man or wheat or tare?
Then for that harvest O prepare!
For soon the reaping time will come,
And angels shout the harvest home.
3 To love my sins, - a saint to appear,
To grow with wheat - yet be a tare,
May serve me while I live below,
Where tares and wheat together grow:
But soon the reaping time will come,
And angels shout the harvest home.
4 But all who truly righteous be
Their Father's kingdom then shall see;
And shine like suns for ever there:
He that hath ears, now let him hear;
For soon the reaping time will come,
And angels shout the harvest home.