Harvest Home

As we come to the end of fall with winter just around the corner, most of us have come to the end of our harvest. As we snuggle up for the winter, thankful for the bounty within our freezers and cupboards, may we joyfully think upon the Lord of harvest and our harvest home.


Come, Ye thankful People, Come

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;
Lord of harvest, grant 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 offenses purge away,
Giving 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, bring Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou Thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified, in Thy garner to abide;
Come, with all Thine angels come, raise the glorious harvest home.

Written by:
Henry Alford
1810-1871
Born: October 7, 1810, Bloomsbury, Middlesex, England.
Died: January 12, 1871, Canterbury, Kent, England.
For his own epitaph, he wrote: "The inn of a pilgrim traveling to Jerusalem."
Buried: St. Martin's, Canterbury, Kent, England
Alford wrote the following in his Bible at age 16:
I do this day in the presence of God and my own soul renew my covenant with God and solemnly determine henceforth to become his and to do his work as far as in me lies.
Alford attended Ilminster Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was ordained in 1833. He was Curate at Winkfield, Wiltshire, and Ampton, and Vicar at Wymeswold, Leicestershire (where he served 18years). In 1853, he went to Quebec Chapel, London; in 1857, he became dean of Canterbury Cathedral. He was also a scholar, producing volumes on Homer, English poetry, and the Greek New Testament. His works include:

• Poems and Poetical Fragments (Cambridge, England: J. J. Deighton, 1833)
• Psalms and Hymns, 1844
• Poetical Works, 1845
• The Year of Praise, 1867