Scripture Verse

Why stand ye here all the day idle? Matthew 20:6

Introduction

Words: L. C. M., in the Sun­day-School Times. The date of first ap­pear­ance is un­known, but this pa­per be­gan pub­li­ca­tion in 1859, and the words be­low ap­peared with O’Kane’s mu­sic in 1870.

Music: Bur­ki­na Fa­so Tul­li­us C. O’Kane, in Dew Drops of Sac­red Song (New York; Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio; Chic­ago, Il­li­nois & St. Louis, Mis­sou­ri: Phil­ip Phil­lips and Hitch­cock & Wal­den, 1870), num­ber 37 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know the ly­ri­cist’s full name, or where to get a good pho­to of him (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Tullius O’Kane (1830–1912)

Lyrics

If you can not preach the Gos­pel,
Where the learned and gift­ed meet,
Winning praise from rich and no­ble,
Sitting in the high­est seat,
You can ga­ther in the child­ren,
Who in streets ne­glect­ed stray,
You can Cal­va­ry’s sto­ry tell them,
You can teach them how to pray.

If you can not, in the tem­ple,
Where the gay and weal­thy throng,
Please them with the chant­ed mea­sure,
Swell with them the cho­ral song;
You can seek the drea­ry dwell­ing,
Where the poor and friend­less stay,
You can com­fort, aid and cheer them,
Point to Heav’n and lead the way.

If you can not lead de­vo­tion,
Where as­sem­bled Chris­tians pray;
If you find you lack the tal­ent,
There to speak, to ed­ify;
You can in the clo­set en­ter,
Only to the Sav­ior known,
You can hum­bly ask His bless­ing
On the seed by oth­ers sown.

Do not, then, sit id­ly wait­ing,
For some great­er work to do.
Precious time is swift­ly pass­ing,
And eter­ni­ty’s in view.
Oh, imp­rove the gold­en sea­son,
Grasp the mo­ments as they fly,
If you’d ear­nest be for Je­sus,
Now’s the time! You soon must die!