This is the field, the world below,
In which the sowers came to sow,
Jesus the wheat, Satan the tares,
For so the word of truth declares:
And soon the reaping time will come,
And angels shout the harvest home.

Most awful truth! and is it so?
Must all the world that harvest know?
Is every man or wheat or tare?
Then for that harvest O prepare!
For soon the reaping time will come,
And angels shout the harvest home.

To love my sins—a saint to appear,
To grow with wheat—yet be a tare,
May serve me while I live below,
Where tares and wheat together grow:
But soon the reaping time will come,
And angels shout the harvest home.

But all who truly righteous be
Their Father’s kingdom then shall see;
And shine like suns for ever there:
He that hath ears, now let him hear;
For soon the reaping time will come,
And angels shout the harvest home.