Fair waved the golden corn

Fair waved the golden corn

Author: John Hampden Gurney
Published in 44 hymnals

Full Text

1 Fair waved the golden corn
In Canaan's pleasant land,
When, full of joy, some shining morn,
Went forth the reaper-band.

2 To God, so good and great,
Their cheerful thanks they pour;
Then carry to His temple-gate
The choicest of their store.

3 Like Israel, Lord, we give
Our earliest fruits to Thee,
And pray that, long as we shall live,
We may Thy children be.

4 Thine i sour youthful prime,
And life and all its powers;
Be with us in our morning time,
And bless our evening hours.

5 In wisdom let us grow,
As years and strength are given,
That we may serve Thy Church below,
And join Thy saints in heaven.

The Hymnal: revised and enlarged as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892

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Author: John Hampden Gurney

Gurney, John Hampden, M.A., eldest son of Sir John Gurney, a Baron of the Exchequer, was born in Serjeants’ Inn, London, Aug. 15, 1802, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1824. On taking Holy Orders he became Curate of Lutterworth (1827-1844), and subsequently Hector of St. Mary's, Marylebone, and Prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral. He died in London, March 8, 1862. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and other religious societies had his cordial sympathy, and received his active support. His publications include several small volumes in prose, and the following:— (1) Church Psalmody; Hints for the improvement of a Collection of Hymns published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1… Go to person page >

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Text Information

First Line: Fair waved the golden corn
Author: John Hampden Gurney
Meter: 6.6.8.6
Language: English
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Notes

Fair waved the golden corn. J. H. Gurney. [Dedication of First Fruits.] This application of the "First Fruits " as a hymn of prayer and praise for Children appeared in the author's Marylebone Psalms & Hymns, 1851, No. 38, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and not in his Lutterworth Collection of Hymns, 1838, as sometimes stated. It has attained to great popularity, and is found, generally unaltered, in most of the leading modern hymn-books. Bingham, in his Hymnologia Christiana Latina, 1871, has rendered it into Latin as "Pulchrius in Judae campis crepitante susurro."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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