CHRISTIAN LIFE >> Thankfulness
SDAH 557
Come, ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin.
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For Worship Leaders
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Introductions for Sabbath School Song Service (based on specific lesson quarterlies):
Henry Alford (1810-1871; see SDAH 433) wrote this hymn of four stanzas and included it in his Psalms and Hymns, 1844. He increased the number of stanzas to seven in a revision in 1867, then reduced them, and after several revisions of his text by other hands, announced his final version of four stanzas, which appeared in his Poetical Works, 1868. The SDAH hymn is substantially his original text, with a slight change in stanza 3, lines 3 and 4, which were:
From His field shall in that day. All offenses purge away.
The hymn is based on two different parables of Jesus, the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:24-30) and the seed growing secretly (Mark 4:26-29).
The tune ST. GEORGE’S, WINDSOR was composed for the hymn “Hark! the Song of Jubilee” and appeared in Thorne’s A Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, 1858. George Job Elvey (1816-1893; see SDAH 223) was the organist at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, for 47 years; he named his tune to commemorate this church. Elvey also composed DIADEMATA, used for SDAH 223 and 616.
📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.
Text
1
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 His harvest home;
From His field shall purge away
All that doth offend, that day;
Give His angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store
In His garner evermore.
4
Then, thou church triumphant, come,
Raise the song of harvest home;
All are 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!
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(a) Ps 95:6 (b) Matt 13:25; Mark 4:28 (c) Matt 13:41, 42 (d) Tit 2:14
Author
Henry Alford (1810-1871)
Year Published
1844
Hymn Tune
ST. GEORGE’S, WINDSOR
Metrical Number
7.7.7.7.D.
Composer
George J. Elvey (1816-1893)
Year Composed
1858
