The Wheat and Tares

Another of the many hymns of John Newton, related to the parable of the wheat and tares. The hymn is Long Meter and might be sung with Long Meter tunes such as Old Hundred and Windham. 

Olney Hymns, Hymn LXXXVI. [Book I, pages106-107]

The wheat and tares. [Matthew] Chap. xiii. 37—42.

1. Tho’ 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.

2. 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!

3. Oh! this will aggravate their case!
They perish’d under means of grace;
To them the word of life and faith,
Became an instrument of death.

4. 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.

5. The tares are spar’d for various ends,
Some, for the sake of praying friends;
Others, the Lord, against their will,
Employs his counsels to fulfill.
 
6. But tho’ 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.

Newton requested to following inscribed on his tombstone, which was done:

Once an infidel and libertine,
A servant of slaves in Africa,
Was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Preserved, restored, pardoned,
And appointed to preach the faith
He had long labored to destroy.

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Note: See “Poor Old John” for a description of an attack on this John Newton hymn.