Scripture Verse

He that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Matthew 13:8

Introduction

Words: Ro­bert D. Mur­ray, 1897.

Music: Be­tha­ny (Smart) Hen­ry T. Smart, 1857 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

portrait
Henry T. Smart (1813–1879)

Lyrics

Sow the seed be­side all wa­ters,
North and south and east and west,
That our toil­ing sons and daugh­ters
In the har­vest may be blessed.
Tell the tid­ings of salv­at­ion
’Mid the storms of Lab­ra­dor;
Speak the word of con­so­la­tion
By the lone Pa­ci­fic shore.

Where the for­ests old are fall­ing,
Yielding place to lawn and lea;
Where the fish­er plies his call­ing
’Mid the per­ils of the sea;
Where the tide of com­merce rush­es
Through the ci­ty’s crowd­ed street,
And un­pi­ty­ing Mam­mon crush­es
Poor and weak be­neath his feet.

Where our bro­thers, sow­ing, reap­ing,
Delving for the hid­den ore,
Now with joy and now with weep­ing
Labor to in­crease their store;
Where the stran­ger wan­ders lone­ly
In the home­less wil­der­ness,
Tell of Je­sus, Je­sus on­ly,
Who alone can save and bless.

Tell how ten­der­ly He car­eth
For the wea­ry and op­pressed,
How their bur­dens all He bear­eth,
As He leads them to His rest;
Tell that He, the Lord from Hea­ven,
Died for all and lives again,
All through Him may be for­giv­en,
All with Him in glo­ry reign.

Tell His love be­yond all tell­ing,
Seeking, fol­low­ing those who flee,
Love re­bel­lious hearts com­pel­ling
To His ser­vice glad and free.
Thus a pre­cious har­vest ga­ther,
North and south and east and west,
To the glo­ry of the Fa­ther,
Son, and Spi­rit ev­er blest.