The hymn, written in 1870, was first published in 1871 in "_Pure Gold_"--a book that had a sale of one million two hundred thousand copies.
To the work! to the work! there is labor for all, For the Kingdom of darkness and error shall fall, And the name of Jehovah exalted shall be, In the loud-swelling chorus, "Salvation is free!"
CHORUS. Toiling on, toiling on, toiling on, toiling on! (_rep_) Let us hope and trust, let us watch and pray, And labor till the Master comes.
Matt. 13:30 is the text of this lyric from the pen of Eben E. Rexford.
Go out in the by-ways, and search them all, The wheat may be there though the weeds are tall; Then search in the highway, and pass none by, But gather them all for the home on high.
CHORUS. Where are the reapers? O who will come, And share in the glory of the harvest home? O who will help us to garner in The sheaves of good from the fields of sin?
Hymn and tune are alike. The melody and harmony by Dr. George F. Root have all the eager trip and tread of so many of the gospel hymns, and of so much of his music, and the lines respond at every step. Any other composer could not have escaped the compulsion of the final spondees, and much less the author of "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp," and all the best martial song-tunes of the great war. In this case neither words nor notes can say to the other, "We have piped unto you and ye have not danced," but a little caution will guard too enthusiastic singing against falling into the drum-rhythm, and travestying a sacred piece.
Eben Eugene Rexford was born in Johnsburg, N.Y., July 16, 1841, and has been a writer since he was fourteen years old. He is the author of several popular songs, as "Silver Threads Among the Gold," "Only a Pansy Blossom" etc., and many essays and treatises on flowers, of which he is passionately fond.
Horatio Gates Spafford, the writer of this hymn, was a lawyer, a native of New York state, born Oct. 30, 1828. While connected with an institution in Chicago, as professor of medical jurisprudence, he lost a great part of his fortune by the great fire in that city. This disaster was followed by the loss of his children on the steamer, Ville de Havre, Nov. 22, 1873. He seems to have been a devout Christian, for he wrote his hymn of submissive faith towards the end of the same year--