The God of harvest praise. J. Montgomery. [Harvest.] The original manuscript of this hymn is dated 1840. From Holland's Memoirs of Montgomery we find that in August, 1840, the poet.visited the widow of E. C. Brackenbury of Raithby Hall, Spilsby, Lincolnshire, and that on his return journey he wrote this hymn. On reaching Sheffield he gave the stanzas to Holland, saying, "You may do what you like with them." Holland adds, "The hint was well understood, and the author's townsmen had the pleasure of reading his beautiful harvest hymn the next day in the Sheffield Mercury" (Memoirs, vol. v. p. 407). It was also printed in the Evangelical Magazine of Nov. 1840, as "A Harvest Hymn for 1840," and dated "The Mount, Sheffield, Sept. 1840." Montgomery included it in his Original Hymns, 1853, No, 279, in 7 stanzas of 7 lines. It is a spirited hymn, and in an abbreviated form would be of some value.
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)