In the harvest field there is work to do

In the harvest field there is work to do. Christopher Rubey Blackall (1830-1924). The first printing of this hymn in Hymnary.org. dates from 1870, and this is likely to be its date of composition. It was presumably written after Blackall’s service as a doctor in the Civil War, and during his first years as secretary of the American Baptist Publication Society for the North West. It was based on the traditional interpretation of the harvest image in Matthew 9: 37-8 and Luke 10: 2, and it is characteristic of Blackall’s hymns in its exhortation to work. It is often given the title ‘Labor On’: In the harvest field there is work to do, For the grain is ripe, and the reapers few And the Master’s...