Best Loved Hymns and Readings

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Martin Manser

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Cтихи и поэзия

Год написания книги

2018

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Like them, the meek and lowly,

On high may dwell with Thee.

Samuel John Stone (1839-1900)

Come, ye thankful people, come (#ulink_6dc265f0-997c-5d63-afe4-594c8f478436)

The work of the noted scholar Dean Henry Alford of Canterbury, ‘Come, ye thankful people, come’ is an established favourite with congregations at harvest festivals, although it appears in a number of variant forms. Its original title was, indeed, ‘After Harvest’. Alford had had a precocious start as a hymn writer, publishing a Collection of Hymns for Sundry Occasions at the tender age of 11.

Come, ye thankful people, come,

Raise the song of harvest-home!

All be 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:

Grant, O harvest Lord, 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 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.

Even so, Lord, quickly come;

Bring thy final harvest home;

Gather thou thy people in,

Free from sorrow, free from sin,

There for ever purified

In thy garner to abide:

Come, with all thine angels come,

Raise the glorious harvest-home!

Henry Alford (1810-71)

Come down, O love divine (#ulink_36f3ca57-71f5-5120-a0e7-b7970db8f9d3)

This hymn was written by the Italian Bianco da Siena. He trained originally as an apprentice in wool in Siena and at 17 became a member of a mystic lay order that followed St Augustine’s rule. He was the author of several hymns. This particular hymn, a favourite choice for weddings, asks the Holy Spirit to fill the hearts of the faithful with a deep sense of God’s presence. It owes its modern popularity to the tune (‘Down Ampney’) composed for this hymn by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Come down, O love divine,

Seek Thou this soul of mine,

And visit it with Thine own ardour glowing.

O comforter, draw near,

Within my heart appear,

And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.

O let it freely burn,

Till earthly passions turn

To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;

And let Thy glorious light