Scripture Verse

Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: Thou preparest them corn, when Thou hast so provided for it. Psalm 65:9

Introduction

Words: Al­ice L. Flow­er­dew, Po­ems on Mo­ral and Re­li­gious Sub­jects, third edi­tion, 1811.

Music: St. James Ralph Courte­ville, in Se­lect Psalms and Hymns for the Use of the Par­ish Church and Ta­ber­na­cle of St. James’, West­min­ster, 1696 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

  • Shildon W. Hes­lop, in The Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Hym­nal, ed­it­ed by George Booth (Lon­don: Pri­mi­tive Me­tho­dist Pub­lish­ing House, 1889), num­ber 894 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Flow­er­dew or Courte­ville (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Fountain of mer­cy, God of love,
Whose gifts all crea­tures share,
The roll­ing sea­sons as they move
Proclaim Thy con­stant care.

When in the bo­som of the earth
The sow­er hid the grain,
Thy good­ness marked its sec­ret birth,
And sent the ear­ly rain.

The spring’s sweet in­fluence, Lord, was Thine,
The sea­sons knew Thy call;
Thou mad’st the sum­mer sun to shine,
The sum­mer dews to fall.

These va­ri­ous mer­cies from above
Matured the swell­ing grain;
And now the har­vest crowns Thy love,
And plen­ty fills this plain.

O ne’er may our for­get­ful hearts
O’erlook Thy boun­te­ous care,
But what our Fa­ther’s hand im­parts
Still own in praise and pray­er.

To Fa­ther, Son, and Ho­ly Ghost,
The God whom we ad­ore,
Be glo­ry, as it was, is now,
And shall be ev­er­more.