Scripture Verse

His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Luke 3:17

Introduction

Words: Har­ri­et B. Mc­Kee­ver, in The Garner, edited by John Sweney (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1878), page 25.

Music: John R. Swe­ney (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Mc­Kee­ver (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
John R. Sweney (1837–1899)

Lyrics

When Je­sus shall ga­ther the na­tions
Before Him at last to ap­pear,
Then, oh how shall we stand in the judg­ment,
When sum­moned our sen­tence to hear?

Refrain

He will ga­ther the wheat in His gar­ner,
But the chaff will He scat­ter away;
Then, oh how shall we stand at the judg­ment
Of the great re­sur­rect­ion day?

Shall we hear, from the lips of the Sav­ior,
The words, Faith­ful ser­vant, well done?
Or, trem­bling with fear and with ang­uish,
Be ban­ished away from His throne?

Refrain

He will smile when He looks on His child­ren,
And sees on the ran­somed His seal;
He will clothe them in hea­ven­ly beau­ty,
As low at His foot­stool they kneel.

Refrain

Then let us be watch­ing and wait­ing,
Our lamps burn­ing stea­dy and bright,
When the Bride­groom shall call to the wed­ding,
Our spi­rits made rea­dy for flight.

Refrain

Thus liv­ing with hearts fixed on Hea­ven,
In pa­tience we wait for the time,
When, the days of our pil­grim­age ended,
We’ll bask in the pre­sence di­vine.

Refrain