Go, labor on: spend and be spent

Author: Horatius Bonar

Go, labour on, spend and be spent. H. Bonar. [Missions.] "Written in 1843, and printed at Kelso in a small booklet of three or four hymns." In 1843 it was included in Dr. Bonar's Songs for the Wilderness, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "Labour for Christ." In 1857 it was repeated in his Hymns of Faith & Hope, 1st series, in 8 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "The Useful Life," from Daniel, iii. p. 128. Previous to this, however, it had been brought into common use through the Leeds Hymn Book1853, No. 604. In the Supplement to the New Congregational Hymn Book, 1869, No. 1157, it is divided into two parts, Pt. ii. being stanzas v.-viii., "Go, labour on while it is day." This arrangement is also found in other collections, sometimes as, "Go, labour on while yet His day." This second part is in somewhat extensive use in America as a separate hymn. In the American Sahbath Hymn Book, 1858, No. 879, stanzas iv., vi.-viii. are given as, "Go, labour on; your hands are weak”; and, in Holy Song, 1869, No. 535, stanzas i., ii., vii., and viii., very much altered, as, "Go forth to toil; to spend, be spent." This last arrangement is too wretched to be associated with Dr. Bonar's name.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Hymns for the Living Church (1974), p.439