James 5:7: The gospel-husbandman, like him

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.

He dares not ask almighty power
For signs unpromised 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.

WHO every hasty growth reject,
As nature's mimicry 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.

" 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 caznot appear,
Until the latter rain come down,
And faith's almighty Finisher
Our patience with perfection crown.