Who every hasty growth reject

Verse 1
Who every hasty growth reject,
As nature’s mimickry of grace,
We lawfully at last expect
The harvest of full holiness:
Soon as the seed of faith is sown,
Our hearts the early rain receive,
And growing in a way unknown
We more and more in Christ believe.

Verse 2
“But may we not at once spring up,
In sudden holiness mature?”
Nay; but we must the flattering hope
Renounce, and to the end endure:
The ripest fruit cannot appear,
Until the latter rain come down,
And faith’s Almighty Finisher
Our patience with perfection crown.

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