Come, ye thankful people, come

with ST. GEORGE’S

I. Text Origins

Among the great hymns of the church suitable for the season of thanksgiving and harvest, this hymn by Henry Alford (1810–1871) has maintained a strong presence in English churches for over a century and a half. Alford first published his hymn in Psalms and Hymns (London: Francis & John Rivington, 1844 | Fig. 1), in four stanzas of eight lines, headed “After Harvest.” At the time, Alford was vicar of Wymeswold parish, Leicestershire, England. Hymnologist J.R. Watson noted how this rural parish position “would have given him an insight into the importance of harvest time in a country community. . . . ‘Raise the song of harvest home!’ at the end of verse 1 neatly appropriates the traditional festivities and brings them inside the parish church, asking for God’s blessing upon the fruits of the earth.”[1]

When Alford’s hymn was adopted into the first edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern (London: Novello, 1861), the editors made several changes. In the second stanza, Alford had set up the metaphor “We ourselves are God’s own field,” but this was modified to read “What is earth but God’s own field,” along with the more generalized notion of ripening in place of Alford’s corn. In the new text, the human-harvest metaphor was not lost, just delayed until the last line. In the third stanza, the harvest language was removed from Alford’s second line. In the final stanza, Alford had bid the church to come, in a future-present tense, whereas the edited text bids the Lord to come, in a not-yet-happened sense.

Alford objected to these alterations to his hymn and addressed the matter in the fourth edition of his Poetical Works (London: Alexander Strahan, 1865 | Fig. 3), writing, “This hymn having been in various collections much disfigured by alterations made without the author’s consent, he gives notice that he is responsible for this form of it only.” In this form, he changed the third and fourth lines of the third stanza at the request of Tract Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (S.P.C.K.), to address a concern of ambiguity.

Alford revised his text yet again for The Year of Praise (London: Alexander Strahan, 1867). This collection was assembled under his role as Dean of Canterbury (since 1857), organized according to the church year, and intended for the Canterbury Cathedral. Here Alford changed 2:1 to read “All the world” rather than “We ourselves,” and transposed the wording of 2:7. The most significant changes were in the fourth stanza, where he followed the example of HA&M by changing the sense from future-present to future-anticipated, among other improvements.

II. Tune

For Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861 | Fig. 2), the editors set Alford’s text to ST. GEORGE’S by George Elvey (1816–1893). Alford followed this example for his own collection in 1867 (Fig. 4). Elvey’s tune was first published in A Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (London: W. Wells Gardner, 1858 | Fig. 5), edited by E.H. Thorne. The tune was named after St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, where Elvey was organist from 1835 to 1882.

This pairing of text and tune, starting with HA&M, has been very successful. J.R. Watson called this combination “a stirring and enjoyable feature of harvest festivals.”[2] Lutheran scholar Paul Westermeyer called it “an effusive tune,” and said it serves congregations well “because the tune is structured in two eight-bar halves, each of which has exactly the same rhythm.”[3] Carl P. Daw echoed this sentiment: “Such details are unlikely to be obvious to a congregation, but at a subliminal level they communicate a quality of careful construction and trustworthiness.”[4]

III. Text Analysis

Alford’s hymn is a juxtaposition of the ideas of agricultural harvest and the spiritual harvest of souls. To emphasize this theme, he repeated the words “harvest” and “harvest home” throughout the hymn. In the first stanza, he established the agricultural context, post-harvest, when “All is safely gathered in / Ere the winter storms begin.” The rest of the hymn attends to the sense of spiritual harvest; Alford made a clear parallel in the first line of the second stanza.

Alford skillfully interweaved key Scriptural allusions. The parable of the wheat and the tares (weeds), mentioned in the second and third stanzas, comes from Matthew 13:24-30,36-43. The naming of blades and ears of corn in stanza two, carelessly omitted in HA&M, is an allusion to the parable of the sower, especially the version in Mark 4, where in verse 28 it says, “For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” (KJV). The promise of being “Free from sorrow” comes from Revelation 21:4, while freedom from sin (the curse) is offered in Revelation 22:3.

Hymn writer and scholar Christopher Idle said of this hymn, “Henry Alford’s words, give or take a line or two, are a piece of classic Victorian writing, which makes a welcome and well-known ‘gathering’ item as the service or festival begins.”[5]

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
7 November 2019

Footnotes:

1. J.R. Watson, “Come, ye thankful people, come,” An Annotated Anthology of Hymns (Oxford: University Press, 2002), p. 307.

2. J.R. Watson, “Come, ye thankful people, come,” An Annotated Anthology of Hymns (Oxford: University Press, 2002), p. 307.

3. Paul Westermeyer, “Come, ye thankful people, come,” Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), p. 549.

4. Carl P. Daw Jr., “Come, ye thankful people, come,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), p. 374.

5. Christopher Idle, “Come, you thankful people, come,” Exploring Praise!, vol. 1 (Darlington: Praise Trust, 2006), p. 611.

Related Resources:

Percy Dearmer & Archibald Jacob, “Come, ye thankful people, come,” Songs of Praise Discussed (Oxford: University Press, 1933), pp. 5–6.

Albert Edward Bailey, “Come, ye thankful people, come,” The Gospel in Hymns (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), p. 392.

Erik Routley, Hymns Today and Tomorrow (New York : Abingdon Press, 1964), p. 127.

J.R. Watson & Kenneth Trickett, “Come, ye thankful people, come,” Companion to Hymns and Psalms (Peterborough: Methodist Publishing House, 1988), p. 227.

J.R. Watson, “Come, ye thankful people, come,” An Annotated Anthology of Hymns (Oxford: University Press, 2002), pp. 306–307.

Christopher Idle, “Come, you thankful people, come,” Exploring Praise!, vol. 1 (Darlington: Praise Trust, 2006), p. 611.

Paul Westermeyer, “Come, ye thankful people, come,” Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), pp. 549–550.

Carl P. Daw Jr., “Come, ye thankful people, come,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), p. 374.

Leland Ryken, “Come, ye thankful people, come,” 40 Favorite Hymns for the Christian Year (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2020), pp. 108–111.