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 is our 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.
Source: CPWI Hymnal #709
First Line: | Fair waved the golden corn |
Title: | Fair Waved the Golden Corn |
Author: | John Hampden Gurney |
Meter: | 6.6.8.6 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
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)