Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
John 4:35
Words: Anonymous, in A Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion, edited by Samuel Longfellow & Samuel Johnson, 4th edition (Boston, Massachusetts: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1849), number 389.
Music: Invitation (Maker) Frederick C. Maker, 1881 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know the author, or where to get a good picture of him or Maker,
Joy! joy! a year is born;
A year to man is given,
For hope, and peace, and love,
For faith, and truth, and Heaven.
Though earth be dark with care,
With death and sorrow rife,
Yet toil, and pain, and prayer,
Lead to our higher life.
Behold, the fields are white!
No longer idly stand!
Go forth in love and might;
Man needs thy helping hand.
Thus may each day and year
To prayer and toil be given
Till man to God draw near,
And earth become like Heaven.