The gospel-husbandman, like him

Verse 1
The gospel-husbandman, like him,
Expects earth’s precious fruit to see,
Not (as the young enthusiasts dream)
In sudden, full maturity,
But waiting still in patient hope
For the long-buried seed’s return,
He sees by slow degrees spring up
The blade, the ear, and then the corn.

Verse 2
He dares not ask almighty power
For signs unpromis’d from above,
Expecting from a single shower
The harvest ripe of perfect love;
But looking for the gradual grace,
The early and the latter rain,
He shall that finish’d holiness,
That perfect love at last obtain.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.”—[James] v. 7. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 2 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 13 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1872), page 175.
Publishing: Public Domain