The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

When I am driving to Big Sandy and back these days, I see that the fields are full of folks sowing their crops and hoping for a good harvest and good prices.

I think of that famous favorite hymn of the famous Methodist Missionary Brother Van, “Harvest Time” by W. A. Spencer.

The hymn is about planting and reaping and tears and singing and mostly about life which is not always pleasant.

In addition the hymn is not really about planting and reaping at all but about grace, our souls, good times and bad and how to live life.

You don’t have to be a Methodist to get why Brother Van loved this hymn so very much.

The hymn is an allegory and it is a wonderful one at that. Here is the first verse and the chorus.

“The seed I have scattered in spring time with weeping

And watered with tears and with dews from on high

Another may shout when the harvesters reaping

Shall gather my grain in the sweet by and by.”

And now that great chorus……………………

“Over and over, yes deeper and deeper

My heart is pierced through with life’s sorrowing cry.

But the tears of the sower and the songs of the reaper

Shall mingle together in joy by and by.”

And at the very end of this hymn……………………….

“Then palms of victory, crowns of glory

Palms of victory I shall wear.”

Memorial Day, Brother Van and “Harvest Time”.

How apropos!