THE SHEAVES | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 28, 1882

THE SHEAVES.

“He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

No shadow o’er the silver sea, That as in slumber heaves, No cloud on the September sky, No blight on any leaves, As the reaper comes rejoicing, Bringing in his sheaves.

Long, long and late the spring delayed, And the summer, dank with rain, Hung trembling o’er her sunless fruit, And her unripened grain; And, like a weary, hopeless life, Sobbed herself out in pain.

So the year laid her child to sleep, Her beauty half expressed; Then slowly, slowly cleared the skies, And smoothed the seas to rest, And raised the fields of yellow corn O’er summer’s buried breast;

Till autumn counterfeited spring With such a flush of flowers, His fiery-tinctured garlands more Than mocked the April bowers, And airs as sweet as airs of June Brought on the twilight hours.

O holy twilight, tender, calm! O star above the sea! O golden harvest gathered in With late solemnity, And thankful joys for gifts nigh lost, Which yet so plenteous be!—

Although the rain-cloud wraps the hill, And suddenly swoop the leaves, And the year nears his sacred end, No eye weeps—no heart grieves: For the reaper comes rejoicing, Bringing in his sheaves.

—Selected.