Harvest

1033

Harvest

1 GREAT God, as seasons disappear, And changes mark the rolling year, Thy favour still has crown'd our days, And we would celebrate Thy praise.

2 The harvest-song we would repeat;

Thou givest us the finest wheat; The joys of harvest we have known; The praise, O Lord, is all Thine own.

3 Our tables spread, our garners stored, Oh give us hearts to bless Thee, Lord, Forbid it, Source of light and love, That hearts and lives should barren prove.

4 Another harvest comes apace;

Ripen our spirits by Thy grace, That we may calmly meet the blow The sickle gives to lay us low.

5 That so, when angel-reapers come To gather sheaves to Thy blest home, Our spirits may be borne on high To Thy safe garner in the sky.

Edmund Butcher. 1796. a

1034 A Harvest Hymn

1 TO praise the ever-bounteous Lord, My soul, wake all thy powers;

He calls, and at His voice come forth The smiling harvest hours.

2 His covenant with the earth He keeps My tongue His goodness sing;

Summer and winter know their time, His harvest crowns the spring.

3 Well-pleased the toiling swains behold The waving yellow crop; With joy they bear the sheaves away, And sow again in hope.

4 Thus teach me, gracious God, to sow The seeds of righteousness:

Smile on my soul, and with Thy beams, The ripening harvest bless.

5 Then in the last great harvest, I Shall reap a glorious crop; The harvest shall by far exceed What I have sown in hope.

6 Oh may the promised blissful hour, The welcome season come, When all Thy servants shall unite To shout the harvest home.

7 A joyful harvest they shall have Who now in sadness sow; And those shall live to sing above, Who wept for sin below.

John Needham, 1768