Alford

November 18, 2018

Not everyone has received the benefit of growing up in a time of great hymnody and coming of age during the advent of contemporary praise music. My children and theirs are deprived of many of the great hymns of the faith that nourished me from the early years of my faith. They are bereft of the cadence and comfort of good theology put to verse and melody, and of the soulful benefits of having sung them repeatedly. Having been bound into hymnals, they didn’t go out of fashion like so much modern Christian music, following as it does the Christian version of the hit parade.

Thanksgiving was inevitably celebrated with three songs—“Come, Ye Thankful People Come,” “We Gather Together,” and “Now Thank We All Our God”—all hymns deeply theological as they reminded us to give thanks in both bounty and want.

This morning I began worship in a more contemporary setting before driving to Dunkirk where to my great delight we sang all three of these hymns. 

“Come, Ye Thankful People Come” was written by the Englishman Henry Alford in 1844. Alford wrote a number of poems and hymns, but most were unfortunately quite forgettable. He was much better known as a scholar and textual critic of the Greek New Testament version that to this day bears his name and remains a foundational text for students of the Greek New Testament. This hymn reveals a masterful mind that has dwelt thoughtfully on the Scriptures and seen parallels in ordinary life that reflect the work and will of God throughout the ages.

Originally having seven verses, his verse was set to George Elvey’s tune “St. George’s Windsor” in 1858, giving the poem a cadence and majesty befitting the lyrics. The four verses in our hymnal  begin with gratitude for a successful harvest. Alford moves in the second and third verses to the parable of the wheat and tares in Matthew 13, concluding in the last verse looking to the end of the Age and the eternal rest of the saints. 

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!

2. We ourselves are 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 harvest Lord, that we 

Wholesome grain and pure may be.

3. For the Lord our God shall come,

And shall take the harvest home; 

From His field shall in that day 

All offenses purge away, 

Giving angels charge at last 

In the fire the tares to cast; 

But the fruitful ears to store 

In the garner evermore.

4. Then, thou Church triumphant come,

Raise the song of harvest home! 

All be safely gathered in, 

Free from sorrow, free from sin, 

There, forever purified, 

In God's garner to abide; 

Come, ten thousand angels, come, 

Raise the glorious harvest home!

Tonight I give thanks for Henry Alford, for his scholarly Greek New Testament; but also for this hymn which has for generations led countless Christians in thanksgiving.