The wheat and tares by John Newton, Tune by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Though in the outward church below
- The wheat and tares together grow;
- Jesus ere long will weed the crop,
- And pluck the tares, in anger, up.
- Will it relieve their horrors there,
- To recollect their stations here?
- How much they heard, how much they knew,
- How long amongst the wheat they grew!
- O! this will aggravate their case!
- They perished under means of grace;
- To them the word of life and faith,
- Became an instrument of death.
- We seem alike when thus we meet,
- Strangers might think we all are wheat;
- But to the Lord's all-searching eyes,
- Each heart appears without disguise.
- The tares are spared for various ends,
- Some, for the sake of praying friends;
- Others, the LORD, against their will,
- Employs his counsels to fulfill.
- But though they grow so tall and strong,
- His plan will not require them long;
- In harvest, when he saves his own,
- The tares shall into hell be thrown.
- O! awful thought, and is it so?
- Must all mankind the harvest know?
- Is every man a wheat or tare?
- Me for the harvest, Lord prepare.
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