Learn a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Matthew 24:32–33
Words: Thomas T. Lynch, The Rivulet, third edition, enlarged (London: Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer, 1868), number 162.
Music: The Blessed Home John Stainer, in Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1875 (🔊 pdf nwc).
Alternate Tune:
Lift up your heads, rejoice,
Redemption draweth nigh;
Now breathes a softer air,
Now shines a milder sky;
The early trees put forth
Their new and tender leaf;
Hushed is the moaning wind
That told of winter’s grief.
Lift up your heads, rejoice,
Redemption draweth nigh;
Now mount the laden clouds,
Now flames the darkening sky;
The early scattered drops
Descend with heavy fall,
And to the waiting earth
The hidden thunders call.
Lift up your heads, rejoice,
Redemption draweth nigh;
O, note the varying signs
Of earth, and air, and sky;
The God of glory comes
In gentleness and might,
To comfort and alarm,
To succor and to smite.
He comes the wide world’s king,
He comes the true heart’s friend,
New gladness to begin,
And ancient wrong to end;
He comes to fill with light
The weary waiting eye:
Lift up your heads, rejoice,
Redemption draweth nigh.