In Vain or Not in Vain?

Ps 127. 1, 2; 1 Cor. 15. 58.

Though men may plan and work and build
To make themselves a name,
And spend their energy and time
To heap up wealth and fame:
’Twill crumble into worthless dust,
Prove loss instead of gain –
‘EXCEPT THE LORD the Builder is,
The labour is in vain’.

Though men may watch with anxious eyes
O’er their possessions here,
And guard their worldly goods to keep
The things they hold so dear;
Death and destruction e’er assail,
Dread foes will entrance gain –
‘EXCEPT THE LORD the city keep,
The watchman wakes in vain’.

Awake! arise! why toil in vain?
What shall it profit thee
If thou the whole wide world should gain
And, for eternity
Thy soul is lost? for, without CHRIST,
No matter what thy gain,
You rise up early in the morn
And sit up late in vain.

O be ye steadfast, saints of God,
Your labour’s not in vain,
Since Jesus Christ our Lord is ris’n
And glorified to reign:
God gives to us the victory
Through Him who lives again –
So toil we on, for IN THE LORD
Our labour’s not in vain.

Always abounding may we be,
Steadfast, in heart kept true:
Held in the power of His love
Controlling all we do;
Then, in that day, How blest ’twill be
WITH HIM, our Lord, to reign
And prove, in glory, to the full,
For Him ’twas not in vain.