To Thee, O Lord

Representative Text

1 To thee, O Lord, our hearts we raise
in hymns of adoration,
to thee bring sacrifice of praise
with shouts of exultation:
bright robes of gold the fields adorn,
the hills with joy are ringing,
the valleys stand so thick with corn
that even they are singing.

2 And now, on this our festal day,
thy bounteous hand confessing,
upon thine altar, Lord, we lay
the first-fruits of thy blessing:
by thee the hungry soul is fed
with gifts of grace supernal;
thou who dost give us earthly bread,
give us the bread eternal.

3 We bear the burden of the day,
and often toil seems dreary;
but labour ends with sunset ray,
and rest comes for the weary:
may we, the angel-reaping o'er,
stand at the last accepted,
Christ's golden sheaves for evermore
to garners bright elected.

4 O blessèd is that land of God,
where saints abide for ever;
where golden fields spread far and broad,
where flows the crystal river:
the strains of all its holy throng
with ours today are blending;
thrice blessèd is that harvest-song
which never hath an ending.

Source: Ancient and Modern: hymns and songs for refreshing worship #289

Author: W. Chatterton Dix

Most British hymn writers in the nineteenth century were clergymen, but William C. Dix (b. Bristol, England, 1837; d. Cheddar, Somerset, England, 1898) was a notable exception. Trained in the business world, he became the manager of a marine insurance company in Glasgow, Scotland. Dix published various volumes of his hymns, such as Hymns of Love and Joy (1861) and Altar Songs: Verses on the Holy Eucharist (1867). A number of his texts were first published in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861). Bert Polman… Go to person page >

Notes

To Thee, O Lord, our hearts we raise. W. C. Dix. [Harvest.] This hymn was given with five others at the end of the St. Raphael’s (Bristol) Hymns for the Service of the Church, 1864, No. 202, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines. By a printer's error it is accompanied by a note which really belonged to the next hymn, No. 203, "The Church of God lifts up her voice". In 1867 "To Thee, O Lord, &c." was given in the People's Hymnal, and since then it has passed into numerous collections, including Hymns Ancient & Modern, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns, Thring's Collection, and others. The fourth stanza is also given as a concluding chorus to Dr. Stainer's harvest anthem, "Ye shall dwell in the land."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

GOLDEN SHEAVES (Sullivan)


BISHOPGARTH

Sullivan composed the tune for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign; hence a few hymnals call it JUBILEE.

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Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #6873
  • Adobe Acrobat image (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer score (NWC)
  • XML score (XML)

Instances

Instances (1 - 100 of 107)
Text

Ancient and Modern #289

Anglican Hymns Old and New (Rev. and Enl.) #780

At Worship #d280

Book of Common Praise #d610

Carmina for Social Worship #d261

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Carmina for the Sunday School and Social Worship #264

Church Family Worship #510

Church Hymnal, Fourth Edition #307

Church Hymnal, Third Edition #329

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Church Hymns and Tunes #624

Church Hymns with Tunes #281

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Church Hymns #308

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Common Praise #274

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Common Praise #647

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Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church #483

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Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New #696

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CPWI Hymnal #723

Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book with Tunes #d484

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Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-book #294

Gloria in Excelsis #d713

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Hymnal Amore Dei #374

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Hymnal Companion to the Prayer Book with Accompanying Tunes (Second Edition) #283

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Hymnal Companion to the Prayer Book #283

Hymnal for Church and Home. 4th ed. #d129

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Hymnal, Amore Dei #374

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Hymnal, Amore Dei. Rev. ed. #a374

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Hymns Ancient and Modern (Standard ed.) #384

Hymns Ancient and Modern, New Edition #515

Hymns Ancient and Modern, New Standard Edition #291

Hymns Ancient and Modern, Revised #484

Hymns and Psalms #362

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Hymns and Songs for the Sunday School #160

Hymns for Divine Worship in Churches and Sunday Schools and at Various Occasions #d168

Hymns for Sunday Schools, Selected from Various Authoors #d225

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Hymns for the Children of the Church #326

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Hymns for Today's Church (2nd ed.) #291

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Hymns of the Church #544

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Hymns of the Faith #587

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Hymns of Worship and Service #260

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Hymns of Worship and Service #260

Hymns Old and New #524

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In Excelsis #745

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In Excelsis #a745

Mennonite Hymn Book #d361

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Northfield Hymns for Young People #118

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Pilgrim Songs (Number Two) #287

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Service Book and Hymnal of the Lutheran Church in America #445

Sing Glory #310

Singing the Faith #129

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Songs of Praise #9

Songs of praise #13

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Songs of the Covenant #80

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Standard Hymns and Spiritual Songs #364

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Sursum Corda #812a

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Sursum Corda #812b

Sursum Corda #812c

The Book of Common Praise #d631

The Book of Common Praise #306

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The Book of Common Praise #347

The Book of Hymns #d499

The Book of Praise #564

The Book of Praise #689

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The Children's Hymnal #245

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The Church Hymnal with Canticles #568

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The Church Hymnal #186

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The Church Hymnal #191a

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The Church Hymnal #191b

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The Church Hymnal #191a

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The Church Hymnal #191b

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The Church Hymnary #495

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The Church Hymnary #887

TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #6873

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The English Hymnal #292

The English Hymnal #292

The Home and School Hymnal #312

The Hymnal #d493

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The Hymnal #654

TextPage Scan

The Hymnal and Order of Service #570

Text

The Hymnal and Order of Service #570

The Hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod. Text ed. #d616

The Hymnal #433

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The Hymnal #657

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The Hymnal #654

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The Hymnal #191

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The Lutheran Hymnal #573

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The Lutheran Hymnary #528

The Methodist Hymn-Book with Tunes #964a

The Methodist Hymn-Book with Tunes #964b

The Methodist Hymnal #d499

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The New Baptist Praise Book #452

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The New Baptist Praise Book #452

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The New English Hymnal #261

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The New Hosanna #63

The Oxford American Hymnal for Schools and Colleges #d358

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The People's Hymn Book #383

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The Pilgrim Hymnal #461

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The Pilgrim Hymnal #596

Pages

Exclude 92 pre-1979 instances
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