Sow in the morn thy seed

Sow in the morn thy seed. James Montgomery* (1771-1854). This hymn was written in seven 4-line verses in February 1832, and printed for use in the Sheffield Sunday School Union’s Whitsuntide gatherings in that year. It was published in Montgomery’s Poet’s Portfolio (1835), entitled ‘The Field of the World’. It appeared with the same title in his Original Hymns (1853). Montgomery described the composition of the hymn in a letter to a friend. Travelling between Gloucester and Tewkesbury he saw women making holes in the ground into which they dropped seeds, a process known as ‘dibbling’. This gave him the idea for the hymn, which he wrote down on reaching Bromsgrove. The sight of the women at...