Scripture Verse

Present yourself to God as…a workman. 2 Timothy 2:15

Introduction

portrait
Fanny Crosby (1820–1915)

Words: Fan­ny Cros­by, 1869.

Music: W. How­ard Doane, 1871 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
W. Howard Doane (1832–1915)

Origin of the Song

I sang [this song] for the first time in the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Cor­nell at Long Branch. The ser­vants ga­thered from all parts of the house while I was sing­ing, and looked in­to the par­lor where I was seat­ed.

When I was through one of them said: That is the fin­est hymn I have heard for a long time; won’t you please sing it ov­er again? I felt that this was a test case, and that if the hymn had such pow­er ov­er those ser­vants it would be use­ful in reach­ing oth­er peo­ple as well; so I pub­lished it in “Gos­pel Hymns” in 1875, where it be­came one of the best work songs for our meet­ings that we had.

Sankey, pp. 289–90

Lyrics

To the work! To the work!
We are ser­vants of God;
Let us fol­low the path
That our mas­ter has trod;
With the balm of His coun­sel
Our strength to re­new,
Let us do with our might
What our hands find to do.

Refrain

Toiling on, toil­ing on,
Toiling on, toil­ing on,
Let us hope and trust,
Let us watch and pray,
And la­bor till the Mas­ter comes.

To the work! To the work!
Let the hun­gry be fed;
To the foun­tain of life
Let the wea­ry be led;
In the cross and its ban­ner
Our glo­ry shall be,
While we he­rald the tid­ings,
Salvation is free!

Refrain

To the work! To the work!
There is la­bor for all;
For the king­dom of dark­ness
And er­ror shall fall;
And the love of our Fa­ther
Exalted shall be,
In the loud swell­ing cho­rus,
Salvation is free!

Refrain

To the work! To the work!
In the strength of the Lord,
And a robe and a crown
Shall our la­bor re­ward,
When the home of the faith­ful
Our dwell­ing shall be,
And we shout with the ran­somed,
Salvation is free!

Refrain