A Handful of Leaves

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What! sitting at ease when there's work to be done

Author: Fanny J. Crosby
Tune: [What! sitting at ease when there's work to be done]
Published in 5 hymnals

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Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 What! sitting at ease when there’s work to be done!
The best of the day half its circuit has run;
Yon orb to its zenith rides forth in the sky;
What! sitting at ease and the harvest so nigh!

Chorus:
Oh, look on the fields, that already are white;
The Lord hath commanded to work in the light;
Beware lest, instead of the bright, golden sheaves,
We bring to him only a handful of leaves.

2 What! sitting at ease, leaving others the toil
Of training the vineyard and tilling the soil;
This truth in our mind let us constantly keep,
From seed that we scatter the fruit we shall reap. [Chorus]

3 What! sitting at ease, when a burden of care
Our brother has borne we might help him to bear;
Oh, let us be earnest, and work while we may,
The Master is calling, arise and away. [Chorus]

4 No longer at ease we are folding our hands,
But, willing to do what the Saviour commands,
We’ll work till the harvest, then gather the sheaves,
And bring to him more than a handful of leaves. [Chorus]

Source: Living Hymns: for use in the Sabbath School, Christian Endeavor Meetings, the church & home #190

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Author: Fanny J. Crosby

Pseudonymns: A.V., Mrs. A. E. Andrews, Mrs. E. A. Andrews, Mrs. E. L. Andrews, James L. Black, Henrietta E. Blair, Charles Bruce, Robert Bruce, Leah Carlton, Eleanor Craddock, Lyman G. Cuyler, D.H.W., Ella Dare, Ellen Dare, Mrs. Ellen Douglass, Lizzie Edwards. Miss Grace Elliot, Grace J. Frances, Victoria Frances, Jennie Garnett, Frank Gould, H. D. K., Frances Hope, Annie L. James, Martha J. Lankton [Langton], Grace Lindsey, Maud Marion, Sallie Martin, Wilson Meade, Alice Monteith, Martha C. Oliver, Mrs. N. D. Plume, Kate Smiley, Sallie Smith, J. L. Sterling, John Sterling, Julia Sterling, Anna C. Storey, Victoria Stuart, Ida Scott Taylor, Mary R. Tilden, Mrs. J. B. Thresher, Hope Tryaway, Grace Tureman, Carrie M. Wilson, W.H.D. Frances… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	What! sitting at ease when there's work to be done
Title:	A Handful of Leaves
Author:	Fanny J. Crosby
Language:	English
Refrain First Line:	O, look on the fields, that already are white
Copyright:	Public Domain