Come, Ye Thankful People, Come

I can’t think of Thanksgiving without this hymn coming to mind. “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” was written by Henry Alford, an English minister, in 1844. The text is almost always paired with George Elvey’s tune, St. George’s Windsor, which was composed in 1858. 

As the first verse perfectly illustrates a bountiful harvest gathering and brings to mind a table of plenty and hearts full of thanksgiving, the hymn takes a turn for verses 2-4. The remaining text is an allegory of Jesus’ Parable of the Wheat and Weeds in Matthew 13. In fact, in most every hymnal, the hymn is not found under a “Thanksgiving” section, but rather under “Christ’s Return and Judgement” (or something in kind) as is in our Glory to God hymnal. 

One of my earliest and fondest memories of singing this hymn is as a teenager. The little white country church I grew up in sat in the middle of a cornfield. I remember going to church often in the late summer/early fall and seeing the cornstalks standing tall and proud before the harvest, surrounding the little white church. Thinking it strange singing a Thanksgiving hymn in August, I’m sure our organist had carefully chosen it because of the words in the second verse and the physical location of the church: “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.”

I also remember singing the hymn at my grandmother’s church. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod had hastily published a new hymnal in 1982. Not all mistakes were caught before that first printing. The hymn “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come”  was one that was overlooked. In stanza 3, Alford wrote: “…give the angel’s charge at last, in the fire the tares to cast, but the fruitful ears to store in God’s garner evermore.” In the Lutheran hymnal, however, one little mistake completely changed the tone of that text. Instead of fruitFUL, fruitLESS had been published! Once the mistake was noticed, every hymnal got a little sticker with the word “fruitful” on it to cover up the mistake. That is indeed what we strive to be, fruitful, not fruitless, on that day when the final harvest is gathered in.

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 in thankful 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 the harvest home;
From each field shall in that day
All offenses purge away;
Give the angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store
In God’s 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.

Prayer

Lord of Harvest, we thank You for hymnwriters like Henry Alford who can take a beautiful depiction of a crop harvest and liken it humanity and our walk with You. We ask that You continue to nurture us as we grow and mature in faith. We thank You, too, for “stickers” along the way that help us make wrong things right; taking us from being fruitless to being fruitful. We look forward to that “final harvest” where we all will be gathered together in Your care. Amen.