Waiting, Only Waiting

Only waiting till the shadows are a little longer grown

Author: Frances L. Mace
Published in 105 hymnals

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Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1. Only waiting till the shadows
Are a little longer grown;
Only waiting till the glimmer
Of the day's last beam has flown;
Till the night of earth is faded
From the heart once full of day,
Till the stars of heaven are breaking
Thro' the twilight soft and gray.

Chorus:
Only waiting till the shadows
Are a little longer grown;
Only waiting till the glimmer
Of the day's last beam is flown.

2. Only waiting till the angels
Open wide the mystic gate,
At whose feet I long have waited,
Weary, poor, and desolate.
Even now I hear their footsteps
And their voices far away;
If they call me, I am waiting,
Only waiting to obey. [Chorus]

3. Only waiting till the reapers
Shall the ripe sheaves gather home;
For the summer time is faded,
And the autumn leaves have come.
Quickly, reapers, quickly gather
Those who with expectant heart,
For thy coming long have waited;
They are eager to depart. [Chorus]

4. Waiting for a brighter dwelling
Than I ever yet have seen,
Where the Tree of Life is blooming,
And the fields are ever green;
Waiting for my full redemption,
When my Saviour shall restore
All that sin has caused to wither;
Shall restore to change no more. [Chorus]

Source: The Gospel Awakening: a collection of original and selected "hymns and spiritual songs" for the use in gospel meetings everywhere #133

Author: Frances L. Mace

Mace, Frances P., née Laughton, was born in Orono, Maine, Jan. 15, 1836, and married in 1855 to Benjamin H. Mace, a Lawyer of Bangor. Her hymn "Only waiting till the shadows" (Heaven Anticipated), was written in 1854, and printed in a local newspaper, the Waterville Mail (Maine), Sep. 7, 1854, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines. It has attained a wide circulation in Great Britain and America. Full text in I. D. Sankey's Sacred Songs & Solos, 1878. See Woman in Sacred Song, 1885, p. 139, for counter-claim on behalf of Mrs. F. A. F. Wood-White. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Only waiting till the shadows are a little longer grown
Title: Waiting, Only Waiting
Author: Frances L. Mace
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

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The Cyber Hymnal #7095

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