Harvest Festival Hymn

Henry Alford was born into a family of five generations serving the Lord in the Anglican Church. A child prodigy, at the age of six Alford wrote and illustrated, ‘The Travels of St. Paul’. He wrote many hymn tunes, and amongst other writings in later life, whilst Vicar of Quebec Street Chapel, London, he published two volumes of his very popular sermons. It was in 1846, whilst Vicar of Wymeswold in Leicestershire, England, that Alford wrote the hymn “Come ye Thankful People Come”. This has always been a favourite ‘Harvest Festival’ hymn, its sentiments echoing all for which we should Praise the Lord. These are four of the original verses:

Come ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home:
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin;
God, our maker doth provide
For our wants to be supplied:
Come to God’s own temple, come;
Raise the song of harvest-home.

All the world is God’s own field,
Fruit unto His praise to yield;
wheat and tares together sown,
Unto joy or sorrow grown;
First the blade and then the ear,
Then the full corn shall appear;
Grant O Lord of life, that we
Wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come,
And shall take His harvest home;
From His field shall in that day
All offences purge away;
Give His angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast,
But the fruitful ears to store
In His garner evermore.

Even so, Lord quickly come,
To Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou thy people in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin:
There for ever purified
In Thy presence to abide;
Come, with all Thine angels come,
Raise the glorious harvest-home.