Scripture Verse

Go work today in My vineyard. Matthew 21:28

Introduction

Words: From the Wes­ley­an Ju­ve­nile Of­fer­ing.

Music: Tul­li­us C. O’Kane, Dew Drops of Sac­red Song (New York: Phi­lip Phil­lips, 1870), num­ber 50 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Tullius O’Kane (1830–1912)

Lyrics

Go work in My vine­yard, There’s plen­ty to do;
The har­vest is great and the la­bor­ers are few;
There’s weed­ing and fenc­ing, and clear­ing of roots,
And plow­ing, and sow­ing, and gath’ring of fruits.
There are fox­es to take, there are wolves to de­stroy,
All ag­es and ranks I can fully em­ploy;
I’ve sheep to be tend­ed, and lambs to be fed;
The lost must be ga­thered, the wea­ry ones led.

Refrain

Go work, go work,
Go work in My vine­yard;
There’s plen­ty to do;
Go work, go work,
The har­vest is great,
And the la­b’rers are few.

Go work in My vine­yard; I claim thee as Mine;
With blood did I buy thee and all that is thine—
Thy time and thy tal­ents, thy lof­ti­est pow­ers,
Thy warm­est af­fect­ions, thy sun­ni­est hours.
I will­ing­ly yield­ed My king­dom for thee,
The song of arch­an­gels—to hang on the tree,
In pain and temp­ta­tion, in ang­uish and shame,
I paid thy full ran­som; My pur­chase I claim

Refrain

Go work in My vine­yard; oh, work while ’tis day!
The bright hours of sun­shine are hast­en­ing away,
And night’s gloomy sha­dows are ga­ther­ing fast;
The time for our la­bor will ev­er be past.
Begin in the morn­ing and toil all the day;
Thy strength I’ll sup­ply, and thy wag­es I’ll pay;
And bless­èd, thrice bless­èd, the di­li­gent few,
Who fin­ish the la­bor I’ve giv’n them to do.

Refrain