36. Sowing Tears Brings Joyous Harvest

1. Sowing tears brings joyous harvest
When to Jesus Christ we cling
And in Him the Lord of Harvest
All the Spirit’s fruits we bring:
Faith, benevolence, and meekness,
Patience and humility,
Are the Spirit’s blessed fruitage,
- Charity and chastity.

2. Trial days are days of value
For Christ’s members verily;
All the outward pain and trouble
But a testing-fire will be.
As the fire makes gold shine brighter,
Trials make our faith more pure,
And, by faith in Jesus strengthened,
We shall more and more endure.

3. Fleeting is the body’s suffering,
Passing is the soul’s dire need,
Vain are all our idle pleasures,
- God is not in them indeed;
Fleeting is all care and anguish
For him who doth Christ possess;
O abide in Him sincerely,
Build alone upon His grace.

4. Thousand-fold the trials befall us
Who to Jesus Christ belong;
Therewith would the foe deride us
And allure us to his throng
Who delight in sinful pleasures,
Seeking earthly wealth and fame,
Making these their heart’s desire,
Cursing those who bear Christ’s Name.

5. Satan’s host through seeing gladness
Shall go unto endless pain;
But the saints by way of sadness
Shall the marriage-supper gain.
Then, my soul, let nothing move thee
From the strait and narrow way,
Even though the body weaken,
Ere you reach your burial-day.

6. Since our Lord once bore the anger,
When He wrought our peace with God,
Love is now the only purpose
Of the Father’s chast’ning rod.
Then, O pilgrim, think not lightly
Of the Father’s chastening;
Seek that it may bring you onward,
While you’re heav’nward hastening.

7. With correction, God remindeth
Every child that it must be;
And the more of fruit he findeth
On Christ’s branches, fair to see,
Al the more the shoots that hinder
He doth prune with watchful eye,
That more fruit each branch may render
For His kingdom there on high.

8. Only in the summer season
Will the fruit develop best;
Tribulation is the reason
Faith is purified and blest;
When the Christian here doth ripen
By afflictions that increase,
Then his yearning grows for heaven
And its everlasting peace.

9. Soon, perhaps, you too may enter
Where the golden harps resound,
Where the saints the palms are bearing
And the faithful ones are crowned.
Therefore cling to Christ you savior;
Daily wrestle, hope, and fight;
With Him pierce through all the darkness
Into His eternal light.

10. If He all your heart is filling,
He the Hope of all your dreams,
From your body will be welling
Of His grace the brightest beams;
All the light of morning, breaking,
Ushers in a joyous day,
So your lips, with fervor speaking,
Will declare: Christ is the Way!