Nearer to Me

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Ho reapers of Life's harvest, Why stand with rusted blade

Author: I. B. Woodbury
Tune: [Ho! reapers of life's harvest] (Woodbury)
Published in 120 hymnals

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Audio files: MIDI

Piano/Organ
	Prayludes for Summer (Flexible Piano Med…

Representative Text

1 Ho! reaper of life's harvest,
Why stand with rusty blade,
Until the night draws round thee,
And day begins to fade?
Why stand ye idle, waiting
For reapers more to come?
The golden morn is passing,
Why stand ye idle, dumb?

2 Come down from hill and mountain,
In morning's ruddy glow,
Nor wait until the dial
Points to the noon below;
And come with the strong sinew,
Nor faint in heat or cold;
And pause not till the evening
Draws round its wealth of gold.

3 Mount up the hights of wisdom,
And crush each error low;
Keep back no words of knowledge
That human hearts should know;
Be faithful to thy mission,
In service of thy Lord,
And soon a golden chaplet
Will be thy rich reward.

Source: Christ in Song: for all religious services nearly one thousand best gospel hymns, new and old with responsive scripture readings (Rev. and Enl.) #622

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Author: I. B. Woodbury

Woodbury, Isaac Baker. (Beverly, Massachusetts, October 23, 1819--October 26, 1858, Columbia, South Carolina). Music editor. As a boy, he studied music in nearby Boston, then spent his nineteenth year in further study in London and Paris. He taught for six years in Boston, traveling throughout New England with the Bay State Glee Club. He later lived at Bellow Falls, Vermont, where he organized the New Hampshire and Vermont Musical Association. In 1849 he settled in New York City where he directed the music at the Rutgers Street Church until ill-health caused him to resign in 1851. He became editor of the New York Musical Review and made another trip to Europe in 1852 to collect material for the magazine. in the fall of 1858 his health br… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Ho reapers of Life's harvest, Why stand with rusted blade
Title:	Nearer to Me
Author:	I. B. Woodbury
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Tune

[Ho! reapers of life's harvest] (Woodbury)

WEBB

George J. Webb (b. Rushmore Lodge, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, 1803; d. Orange, NJ, 1887) composed WEBB (also known as MORNING LIGHT) on a voyage from England to the United States. The tune was published in The Odeon, a collection of secular music compiled by Webb and Lowell Mason (PHH 96) i…

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