One of the things we at RHMA are always keeping an eye out for is a well-known hymn that just happened to have been written by a small-town pastor!

We’ve made many such discoveries over the years, and thought we’d pretty much found them all. But then every once in awhile, up pops a new one!

One of those discoveries was Henry Alford (1810-1871), a 5th generation British pastor. Henry was a precocious boy and before he was ten years old he had written several poems in Latin, a history of the Jews, and a series of homiletic outlines! He studied for the ministry at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at age 25 he became pastor of the parish church in the small town of Wymeswold (pop. 1250). Henry stayed there the next 18 years, though twice the Church of England tried to lure him away to be a bishop overseas.

The small parish in Wymeswold had been neglected over the years, and Henry rebuilt it through door-to-door visitation to most everyone in the village. One of his major undertakings was adding a Sunday afternoon service which focused on expository sermons in which he Alford’s Greek Testament taught through the books of the Bible. In about his 15th year Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) – “an invaluable aid to the critical study at Wymeswold, Henry began work on what is now known of the text of the New Testament.” (and still in print) as Alford’s Greek Testament. It took him a John Piper – “comes closer more dozen years to write it and it’s still considered a classic 150 consistently than any other human commentator to asking my kinds of years later. questions.” John MacArthur and Master’s Seminary After 18 years in Wymeswold Henry moved on to London call it a must-have resource in its list to pastor a large church, and within a few years he became of 850 Books for Biblical Expositors. Dean of Canterbury Cathedral – the mother church of the Anglican Church worldwide. He served there till his death about 15 years later at age 60.

Henry’s known to pastors and scholars for his Greek Testament. He’s known to the rest of us – and all of us – for one particular hymn. It was written halfway through his tenure as a small- Wymeswold town pastor, and ended up now becoming a classic hymn for Thanksgiving services across the English-speaking world: Henry then Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.