Come, Ye Thankful People, Come by George Job Elvey – Improvised by pianist Charles Manning

Details

Description

Happy Thanksgiving!!

“Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” is a Christian harvest hymn of celebration with text written by Rev. Henry Alford, an English priest, in 1844. The festival hymn is most often sung to the tune “St. George's Windsor,” composed in 1858 by George Job Elvey. First published in “Hymns and Psalms” (1844), the hymn’s original title was "After Harvest." "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” now appears in many Protestant hymnals and has gained immense popularity in the United States, where it is frequently sung as part of Thanksgiving services and civil observances. For reference, the four verses of the text are printed below. In celebration of the annual Thanksgiving holiday, pianist Charles Manning improvises the festival hymn, “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.”

~ Text ~

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 this world is God's own field,
Fruit unto his praise to yield.
Wheat and tares therein are sown
Unto joy or sorrow grown.
Ripening with a wondrous power,
Till the final harvest-hour:
Grant, O Lord of life, that we
Holy grain and pure may be.

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.

Then, thy church triumphant come,
Raise the song of harvest-home:
Let thy saints be gathered in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin.
All upon the golden floor,
Praising thee for evermore:
Come, with all thine angels come,
Raise the glorious harvest-home!