Cast thy bread up­on the wa­ters,
Thinking not ’tis thrown away;
God Him­self saith, thou shalt ga­ther
It again some fu­ture day.

Cast thy bread up­on the wa­ters;
Wildly though the bil­lows roll,
They but aid thee as thou toil­est
Truth to spread from pole to pole.

As the seed, by bil­lows float­ed,
To some dis­tant is­land lone,
So to hu­man souls be­night­ed,
That thou fling­est may be borne.

Cast thy bread up­on the wa­ters,
Why wilt thou still doubt­ing stand?
Bounteous shall God send the har­vest
If thou sow­est with li­ber­al hand.