The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His harvest.
Luke 10:2
Words: John M. Neale, Hymns for the Young, second series, 1844. These words are from O Lord, We Come Before Thee Now, starting with the third stanza.
Music: Manchester New Robert Wainwright, 1774 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good picture of Wainwright (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
The earth, O Lord, is one wide field
Of all Thy chosen seed;
The crop prepared its fruit to yield;
The laborers are few indeed.
We therefore come before Thee now
With fasting, and with prayer,
Beseeching of Thy love that Thou
Wouldst send more laborers there.
Not for our land alone we pray,
Though that above the rest;
The realms and islands far away,
O let them all be blest.
Endue the bishops of Thy flock
With wisdom and with grace,
Against false doctrine, like a rock,
To set the heart and face.
To all Thy priests Thy truth reveal,
And make Thy judgments clear;
Make Thou Thy deacons full of zeal,
And humble, and sincere.
And give their flocks a lowly mind
To hear and to obey;
That each and all may mercy find
At Thine appearing day.